


My Sense of Wonder's Just a Little Tired

by Houdini123, LittleLizardLover



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aliens are heavily implied but not featured, Army, Child Soldiers, Falling In Love, M/M, Out of Character, Protectiveness, Robots, Science, Shitty home situations, Sleepovers, Smoking, Spaceships, Superpowers, Swearing, Team as Family, Tsukishima Kei is Bad at Feelings, Violence, War Crimes, Zoom (2006) - Freeform, a forbidden oikawa cameo, robot noya, shady behaviour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 33,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25382668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Houdini123/pseuds/Houdini123, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLizardLover/pseuds/LittleLizardLover
Summary: “Ah, Mr. Zoom sorry about all the dramatics from earlier. I’m Dr. Shimizu and we’re here to ask you to come back to the Zenith-”“Yeah, no fucking way, you guys can fuck right off.”“Ah but sir, we’re under strict instructions to bring you back with us.” The girl pulled a gun out from under her dress and aimed it at Ukai’s chest.“Well fuck, I’d rather go in a body bag so do your damage sweetheart.” Ukai was not going to go back, no fucking way. She went to press the trigger…--Ukai, a retired superhero, is forced to mentor a new group of superkids who would rather be anywhere but the Zenith base. However much he doesn’t like these brats, he’ll still do whatever is in his power to stop them from going through the horrors he went through during his own time in the Zenith program.--Started off as a crack fic based off the notoriously bad 2006 movie Zoom, then it got serious somehow. Do not let the first chapters fool you. Enjoy!
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio & Tsukishima Kei & Yamaguchi Tadashi, Takeda Ittetsu/Ukai Keishin, Tsukishima Kei & Yamaguchi Tadashi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 53
Kudos: 111





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is me and my sister's second fic together. it's been a wild ride. Zoom (2006) was a childhood favourite of ours and we wanted to write a short cracky fic based on it after rewatching it on a whim. Then it got out of hand and became serious, somehow. We had a lot of fun writing this so we hope you guys enjoy it too!

The war room was packed to the brim, a nervous energy making its way through the air as military officials and scientists alike glanced around, trying to find answers. No one knew why they had been called to the war room, only that they had no choice but to be there. 

The old General Ukai was standing at the front of the room, staring everybody down, seemingly annoyed at their nervous energy. The general snickered and pointed to the dark screens. They immediately turned on with an ominous timer counting down from thirty-one days.The screens had maps, estimated threat levels and missile counts, but the most frightening thing was the message across the screens: “Imminent threat.” with an old photo of the ex-hero turned villain: Concussion. 

“Alright, listen up, nerds and subordinates! We have a real problem on our hands: Concussion is coming back with a vengeance.” The general said, pointing to the screen.

The nervous energy immediately turned to pure dread at those words. Those who had been present during the first crisis posed by Concussion shivered as they remembered the carnage, while those who had only heard stories felt their blood run cold at the thought of going against someone who had an almost legend-like status around the base.

The general continued talking “He’s figured out how to travel back to Earth and has plans to enact revenge on his old teammate, Zoom, and the rest of the world, most likely. Because of this we have decided to bring back the Zenith program.”

The Zenith program. It had been completely shelved twenty years prior, right after the first Zenith team had been killed. It was a top-secret government program that found children that had gained strange, inhuman abilities due to exposure to radiation and trained them to be superheroes that could protect Japan and the rest of the world against threats the regular military couldn’t fight against.

“As you can see, time is running out,” The general said, pointing to the counter. One month really wasn’t that much time. “So get your asses in gear and start prepping! Your orders have been sent to your emails. You all know the drill!” The old man was now wildly shooing people out of the room while smoking from his vintage pipe. He whipped around to face a short man with glasses who was quietly conversing with a young woman. 

“Takeda! Shimizu!” The two startled, turning to him. They clearly thought they were going to get chewed out for talking while he was still giving orders.

“Yes sir?” They said in unison.

“Get me Zoom! Do what you have to do to make it happen, use force if you need to. If you don’t get him, it’s your asses on the line.”

“Yes sir, right away, sir!”

“Now get out of my sight, we have work to do!” Takeda and Kiyoko side-eyed each other as the general shoved them out of the war room. This was going to be difficult.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kiyoko has no chill in this one :P

Ukai was stupidly hungry and it was all the damned delivery driver’s fault. He’d had to miss lunch because the driver had forgotten to bring the forklift and they’d had to unload every single case of beer and soda from the back of the truck by hand. His back was never going to forgive him for this one. Reaching under the counter to grab his lunch he had the sudden soul-crushing realization that he had forgotten to even pack one. His apartment was just above the store, but he couldn’t just leave the store unattended. An impromptu milkshake it was, then.

Grabbing yogurt, a banana, and an assortment of other goodies Ukai made his way around the shop, cigarette in mouth. Coming back to the til he chucked all his ingredients into the cup he kept around especially for times like this. He sat down and focused his energy on his index finger, slowly and then all at once it began to vibrate. He shoved his finger in the cup to begin blending his milkshake until his preferred consistency of beat-to-all-hell was reached, no thank you clumps. Was it weird, and maybe a little gross? Most definitely, but he’d eaten grosser and saved money on a blender like this. As he wiped his finger off on his shirt he stared out the window where a pretty young lady in a blue dress was preparing to cross the street.

She clearly hadn’t seen the car speeding straight towards her as she engaged the crosswalk. Ukai stood with a cry.

“Watch out!” He shouted. But it was too late. Thankfully, the car swerved and she wasn’t hit but the shock seemed to have knocked her out. He rushed out of the store, milkshake forgotten, to help her out. 

\--

“Are you sure you’re okay? You fell pretty badly.” Ukai asked, holding the young woman up by the arm as she walked around like a bambi on ice. 

“Yes, I’m fine, there’s-” The pretty lady was cut off by the twits who had almost hit her earlier bursting into his shop. 

“What the fuck do you guys want?!” Ukai asked.

Suddenly the lady was back on stable legs and joining the three other guys, one of which wore nerdy glasses and a lab coat. Cute.

“Ah, Mr. Zoom sorry about all the dramatics from earlier. My name is Shimizu Kiyoko and we’re here to ask you to come back to the Zenith-”

Aa soon as he heard the word’s ‘Zoom’ and ‘Zenith’ together, Ukai saw red, “Yeah, no fucking way, you guys can fuck right off.” What were they thinking, asking him to come back to the Zenith program? He thought he had made his feelings on Zenith clear when he had punched the general in the face and walked out yelling at them to leave him the fuck alone. He didn’t even have powers anymore, after his fight with Concussion.

“Ah, but sir, we’re under strict instructions to bring you back with us.” The girl said as she pulled a gun out from under her dress and aimed it at Ukai’s chest. Ukai was surprised, but also not. The Zenith program and it’s coordinators had never been known for its diplomatic skills and this doctor seemed to be one of those snappy, eager-to-please types. So, Ukai did the wise thing. He spread his arms slowly and prepared himself for the worst.

“Well fuck, I’d rather go in a body bag, so do your damage, sweetheart.” Ukai was not going to go back, no fucking way. She went to press the trigger when the nerd in glasses pushed her arm out of the way.

“You can’t just kill him!” The bullet - stun dart? - bounced off a pipe in the ceiling right into Ukai’s fucking nipple, which, what the fuck. Of all the places for it to hit. He had a whole ass face, chest and limbs and it had to be there? That hurt. The world got really woozy, really fast. Ukai’s last thought was that these doctors sure weren’t smart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can still see how cracky this fic started off, but things are gonna start getting more serious soon.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even in an alternate universe, volleyball is still Kageyama's top priority, lol.

“Woah. It’s that glowing freak.”

Hinata turned at the sound of the voices of older kids from his school. He smiled at them, though he was pretty sure they were insulting him. There were three of them, probably fifth or sixth graders. He was only in kindergarten, so they were all much bigger than him.

“Holy shit.” The biggest of the three said, “It’s like someone put a lightbulb in his mouth.”

The scrawniest one gave Hinata a shove with a laugh, “Do you think he can turn it off?”

“I can turn it off!” Hinata said, intent on defending himself, “I just have to let the energy out.”

The older kid shoved him again, “What the fuck does that even mean?” Another shove, this time causing Hinata to bump into the third kid, who shoved him again.

“Stop pushing me!” Hinata yelled, shoving the boys back. He didn’t mean to, but in that moment, he released some of his stored up energy and shoved all three so hard they were sent flying and landed in a nearby tree. He stared up at the three who seemed too dazed to even try to climb down. “Uh. See ya!” He called out, running off toward his house. Hey, at least he wasn’t glowing anymore.

\--

Volleyball was Kageyama’s favourite thing. He was good at it, and he enjoyed himself doing it. He had only just started middle school and was already a starter on the team.

The only problem was his teammates. None of them were even near his level, and most of them didn’t listen to him when he told them what to do. It had never been a problem in a game before, but now it was. He set the ball, but no one moved. It landed on the ground and bounced a bit before stopping.

He turned to look at his teammates, and then all stared at him, unwavering. The other team was whispering, and the people in the crowd were whispering. Everyone was staring at him. For a second, he was frozen, but then he huffed and went to stomp off of the court. The second his foot hit the ground, he froze again, because it had broken straight through the wooden floorboards and made quite a deep hole in the concrete below.

People were no longer whispering. They were shouting now, and some woman was even shrieking in fear. Silently cursing to himself, the twelve year old quickly made his way off the court, making sure to reign in his supernatural strength so as to not destroy the floor even more. He rushed to gather his belongings in the locker room, wishing his parents were there at least, but they were off on another business trip. He headed home, alone, wondering if he would even be allowed back at the school.

\---

Yamaguchi had always been a wallflower. He didn’t make friends super easily and didn’t do anything outstanding, so most people ignored him. While he wouldn’t have minded having a few friends, he enjoyed flying under the radar. The other kids in his year could be downright brutal, and he didn’t want to add bullying to his already pretty shitty life. On most days, he went by completely unnoticed by the resident assholes, but today their usual prey were all away on field trips he couldn’t afford, leaving him the only easy pickings in the school.

Their laughing was echoey and metallic through the metal door of the locker, and it faded away as they walked further and further from him. Yamaguchi banged on the door, begging to be let out, but that didn’t seem to be an option. He pushed as hard as he could, but the lock wasn’t just going to give up that easily.

“Guess you’re just going to have to wait for the janitor.” A voice outside said - so they hadn’t all walked away. Yamaguchi felt more frustration bubbling up in him at hearing the taunts and pushed as hard as he could against the door. Surprisingly, it opened with ease, slamming backwards. Simultaneously, every other locker door in that hallway slammed open.

“What the fuck?!” The guy shouted, falling to the ground and staring up at Yamaguchi like he was some sort of monster. The guy was scrambling backwards, trying to get away as quickly as possible.

“No, wait-” Yamaguchi started speaking but it was too late. The guy was already running off. Yamaguchi sighed, looking at the mess that had been violently thrown out of all the lockers. Today was not a good day.

\--  
Tsukishima was bored to tears thanks to the hellspawn the school called a math teacher: Mrs. Midori. Seriously, what the fuck was up with this school’s faculty? If it was up to Tsukishima, he would’ve been out of there long ago, but one more absence and he was going to be stuck in detention for the rest of his life, or something equally dramatic. 

“Mr. Tsukishima, are you paying attention or off in dreamland again?” demanded the harpy. 

“Does it matter?”

“How about you come up here and finish the problem written on the board if you’re so above my lessons?”

“I think the problem can finish itself.” He said standing up and grabbing the chalk. A fuzzy feeling took over his body as he made himself slowly disappear. Gasps could be heard around the room as he perfectly finished the problem. _Take that old hag_. He put the chalk down, stole a glance at Mrs. Midori’s fuming face, and walked out of the room and school still completely invisible. The last thing he heard while crossing the doors was the harpy screeching her head off at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do y'all think of the kid's powers? We switched it up a bit from the movie to have a bit more originality and have it fit their personalities a bit better, so we hope you guys like it!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly bigger chapter now! A taste of the increasing size of the chapters starting now (the fic sits currently at 34K words)

Waking up from what felt like death sure wasn’t a fun experience, Ukai thought as fluorescents blinded his vision. His nipple still hurt like a bitch. _What the fuck was wrong with that chick?!_ Groaning he sat up, pulling his shirt down to inspect his nipple that thankfully was still there albeit bruised as all fuck. The chick from earlier chose that moment to walk in.

“Ah, Zoom, good to see you back in the world of the living. Sorry about what happened earlier, Takeda didn’t know it was a stun gun.” She didn’t look sorry at all. Her face was decidedly neutral. And then, the devil he never wanted to see again walked in with the man he assumed to be Takeda.

“Zoom, good to see you again.”

“Grandpa, I really don’t see why you felt the need to drag me back here. Nice touch with the pretty lady scenario but you and I both know I never swung that way.” Ukai said sorely, rubbing his pec. 

“Wasn’t my plan, I thought they were going to be smart about it and offer you the cash first.”

“What cash?! I was shot and drugged, did I miss the memo or something?” 

“Ah, Mr. Zoom, sir. Well if you chose to help us out there would be a salary of twenty-two million yen attached to the job, sir.” Takeda was about as red a tomato, and constantly pushing up his glasses and bowing.

“You guys shot and kidnapped me before offering me a job like a normal person?” _Are these guys for real?_

“We are so, so sorry for that. We promise it won’t happen again!” Takeda and Kiyoko both bowed in respect.   
“Well, now that that is settled you guys can get to work.” Old Ukai gruffed, leaving with a puff of smoke. 

“Can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on?” Leave it to his old gramps to be cryptic as fuck on everything.

“Mr. Zo-” 

“Don’t call me that, Glasses, Ukai or Keishin is fine.” More blushing, damn did he have tomato DNA? There was definitely something up with all that….

“Mr. Ukai, you were brought here because General Ukai decided to revive the Zenith program with a new group of kids and we need a mentor for them.” rushed Takeda. 

“I’m guessing I don’t have much of a choice?”

“No, not really. But you are the perfect candidate for this, a real-life superhero mentoring the next generation!”

“You want me to mentor a group of kids so they can go out, get shot up with gamma radiation, and then die tragically in the field? Thanks, but no thanks. I won’t be part of preparing them for the slaughterhouse.” _The nerve his grandfather had, reinstating this program._ Ukai was beyond pissed. 

“We won’t be using any gamma radiation this time around thanks to Takeda’s research. We won’t repeat the same mistakes.” Kiyoko was leveling him with a look daring him to argue.

“I don’t even like kids.”

“That is irrelevant, I’m sure you can work around it.”

“They’ll be great seeing as we get to pick them together! I already screened them and whoever you’ll choose will be amazing!” Takeda was practically vibrating, his eyes were sparkling. _Weird, but cute._

“Fuck it, I guess.” Sigh. As much as he hated the idea of staying there, he knew there wasn’t much of a choice. Ways out of the base were limited when the General didn’t want you leaving, especially without super speed on your side. And, at least this way, whatever poor bastards got roped into the program this time would have someone on their side, an adult who understood what they were going through. The twenty-two million yen was also a nice addition..

\--

Watching a gang of twenty kids parade in at seven in the morning when he hadn’t even finished his first cup of coffee nor smoked his first cigarette was rough. Takeda was beside him, once again vibrating with energy and talking his ear off about how wonderful these kids were.

“Look, I’m sorry to interrupt but until I need to see it to believe it. I hope for our sake that these kids live up to your tales.” 

“Ah, yes, I mean I hope so , sorry.” There he goes again, red. 

“I’ve noticed you blush a lot, you got a condition or something?”

“Ah! No I ju- I don’t know. Sorry” _Cute, so cute._

“I’m just teasin’.” He said, patting Takeda’s shoulder. He somehow got even redder. _Interesting._

“C’mon, show me what these kids are made of, Glasses.”

\--

That is how Ukai ended up sitting in a chair as a child with bright orange hair sang his ABCs in his little kid voice. 

“Look, kid, I really hate to cut you off but I need to see something cool in the next two minutes or you’re getting a big fat X on your application.The glowing is cute and all but I need something a bit more powerful.” He gruffed out around the cigarette in his mouth. The kid looked like he was about to cry when he ran and leaped up, latching on to the rafters at the top of the ceiling. Those were over two storeys high, and it was definitely impossible for any normal human to jump that high. 

“Well, I’ve got to say that that is definitely better than your ABCs. Can somebody get a lift to get him down?” Ukai shouted, turning to whisper to Takeda: “I gotta give it to you, this kid’s got potential. Nice going, Glasses.” Ha, the red was spreading down his neck. _Wonder how far down it goes._ Ukai heard a squeak come from his left where Takeda was sitting. 

“Are you okay?”

“YES! I mean yes, I’m fine thank you. Next please!” Was the squeaky and blushy response Ukai got. 

A weird looking kid with a shaved head stepped up to the table proudly announcing his name to be Jupiter the gas giant before lifting his leg.

“NOOOOOOO STOP!” But it was too late, much too late.

Coughing and crying from the overwhelming stench Ukai whisper shouted to Takeda, “How the FUCK did this kid pass the screening?! What the actual fuck is wrong with you?” So many questions were running through his head.

“I’m sorry *cough* he was *cough* *wheeze* the one kid I ran out of time for *cough*” Takeda looked two seconds away from passing out, and passing out he did.

\--

It ended up taking half an hour to clear the tear inducing stench from the room and to bring Takeda back from the dead. Many smelling salts were used. If the army ever needed a new super-weapon all they need was to bottle up whatever the fuck that kid had going on. To say the next kids were underwhelming was an understatement, until a scrawny freckled kid shyly made his way forward.

“Um, hi?”

“Hi Yamaguchi, don’t be shy just do what you did yesterday!” Takeda was almost glowing like that orange haired kid from earlier. He leant in to whisper to Ukai, “He’s really special, I think you’ll like him!”

The kid seemed to focus before Ukai’s soda went flying at the wall, shattering on impact.

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry, I can-”

“It’s alright kid, calm down and go have a juice box.” Takeda was right, this kid was special-er, Ukai thought as he watched the kid high-tail it out of the gym. Telekinesis was a well documented power, so training this one would be easy.

“Next!”

A kid with a superiority complex written as plain as day on his face walked up. “Woah, preteen-angst, tone down the glaring, we’re all friends here.” Ukai said, and he might or might not have enjoyed the sour look he got for that comment, but he certainly wasn’t going to admit to it.

“I don’t need friends.” The kid said, voice scarily cold, before picking up Ukai and Takeda’s table and chucking it across the gym into the wall where it broke into pieces.

“What you need is therapy and anger-management classes, but all we’ve got is military training so I guess we’ll have to make do with that, Mister-I-don't-need-friends.” _Jesus fuck, what was wrong with these kids?_

It was another grueling two hours until they reached the final kid, well teenager really. “How tall are you kid? You on ‘roids or something?” Ukai joked.

“195 centimeters and no, only an idiot low-life like you would take steroids.” Ouch, right in the feels.

“Alright, what’s your damage?” As soon as Ukai finished talking the kid was gone, he blinked and he was back.

“Anything else, sir?” The smug little bastard asked.

“No, you can go have a juice box with the other kiddos.”

“Whatever.”

With that him, Takeda, and now Kiyoko were alone. Sighing, Ukai stood up, “Those kids have potential but they’re also all clearly dealing with some attitude issues right now, and there’s no way they’ll make a good team if they can’t get over that..”

“Well, that’s why you’re here, Mr. Zoom.” Kiyoko said.

“Doc Shimizu, I would really prefer it if you didn’t call me that. Also, I’m not a goddamn psychiatrist.”

“That is officially not my problem, Mr. Zoom.”

“Um, can we all get along please?” Takeda’s eyes were flitting between Ukai and Kiyoko during their ‘epic’ stare down.

“Sure thing. Glasses, you wanna get some lunch?”

“Ah, um, yes!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who have watched Zoom : we scrapped the snot kid, because that scene is straight up inhumane.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> baby hinata experiences his first near death experience in this one. tsukki is not pleased.

Ukai wouldn’t be able to identify the mood in the classroom if you paid him a million dollars, but the best he could approximate was _awkward_. The invisible kid and the pissy preteen were both sulking in opposite corners of the room, while the telekinesis guy seemed to be about to shake out of his seat in… anxiety? Fear? The six year old, who had stopped glowing after the jumping stunt, was now glowing again albeit a bit less than before, and seemed to be almost vibrating with energy.

He watched them for a second to see if they would react to his, Kiyoko and Takeda’s presence. Just as the glowing kid was about to say something though, Takeda spoke up.

“Okay kids, how about we do some proper introductions now that the vetting process is over?” He said with a bright smile, “My name is Takeda, I’m the one who’s going to be taking care of you.” He turned to Ukai and nudged him with his elbow.

“I’m Ukai.” He said simply. Takeda nudged him harder with his elbow. “Your … teacher. I’m in charge of your training.”

“Mr. Ukai here is a superhero by the codename of Zoom!” Takeda said, “He’s the fastest man alive, faster than even most superheroes from comic books!”

“Hey, don’t go overselling me to these kids.” Ukai chastised, though it was pretty nice being praised by Takeda. “I’m just a corner store clerk. Look, kids, I’m sure that these people have told you a bunch of tall tales about how you’re so special and how you’re going to save the world, but that’s a load of bullshit. We aren’t going to train you to make you stronger, we’re going to pump so much goddamn gamma radiation into you you’ll make geiger counters explode.”

“What’s gamma radiation?” The little kid asked.

“Doesn’t really matter if you know or not, cause I’m pretty sure that shit gives you brain rot anyway.”

“Mr. Ukai!” Kiyoko said, sounding quite offended but she quickly regained her cool, “No one will be getting any gamma radiation treatments.”

For a hot moment, the two were silently glaring at each other, all of the kids watching in anticipation.

“Let’s continue introductions!” Takeda said, “This is Shimizu Kiyoko, she’s one of the main researchers for the Zenith program. Why don’t all of you introduce yourselves as well?”

“Don’t you already know all of our names?” The blonde teen asked, “I mean, you have all our personal information on file, right?”

Takeda flushed, “Well, yes, but you don’t all know each other yet, and it’s more personal to introduce ourselves like this.”

“Tsukishima Kei.” The blonde said, “I turn invisible.”

Straight to the point and blunt. Ukai could appreciate those qualities, even if the kid was a bit lacking in the enthusiasm and respect department.

“Oh! Oh! Me next!” The six year old said, “I’m Hinata Shouyou! I’m going to be the best hero ever!”

“What can you even do?” Tsukishima asked, slightly mocking, “Other than being a glorified glowstick?”

Hinata’s face scrunched up in a mix of anger and embarrassment, and Ukai briefly wondered how good his grip on his power was, because if it wasn’t good, things might get real ugly real soon. The kid’s glow was getting brighter, which Ukai assumed meant he was about to release some of the energy, and he grabbed the desk Tsukishima was leaning on and then chucked it across the room. The sudden move caused the blonde to fall forward onto the ground, while the desk crashed just a foot away from the broody preteen.

“What the hell!?” The preteen shouted, “You could’ve killed me, you moron!”

“Ah! I didn’t mean to!” Hinata defended himself, cowering away from the preteen who was looking at him with a murderous look in his eyes.

“Kids! Please calm down!” Takeda shouted as three of the four kids erupted into a shouting match. Ukai personally found it quite entertaining. Tsukishima and Kageyama had turned on each other immediately, despite not having done anything to each other, and the concept of a seventeen year old getting pissed at a kindergartner was hilarious all on its own.

A sudden and loud thump made everyone stop. Kiyoko had grabbed a large book off one of the shelves and dropped it straight down onto one of the desks.

“I don’t believe everyone’s introduced themselves yet.” She said, then turned her gaze to Kageyama expectantly.

“Uh.” The preteen seemed to wilt a bit under her gaze, “Kageyama Tobio. I have super strength.”

Everyone’s attention then turned to the one kid who hadn’t spoken yet. “Yamaguchi Tadashi, I can use telekinesis.” He said shyly.

“Great. Good introductions, everyone.” Ukai said, “I’m off to go have a smoke. Try not to kill each other in the meantime.”

He turned and left without waiting for anyone else to say anything, though he did hear Takeda calling out his name. He huffed. Those kids were a mess, both as individuals and as a future team, and the fact that one of them was only six really didn’t sit well with him. 

He _really_ needed that smoke.

\--

Ukai, the traitor, had left him alone with the kids so he could go and have a smoke and Kiyoko, also a traitor, had left to go do some “tests”. So now Takeda was faced with four bored and disheartened kids quietly talking amongst themselves and his lesson plan thrown out the window along with any semblance of Ukai assisting him. Yamaguchi had turned his chair around to face a seemingly apathetic Tsukishima and the other two were having an intense argument on who had the cooler power. Takeda decided to resort to drastic measures to motivate his kids.

“I’ll be right back, I need to grab something for the lesson so sit tight for a few minutes!” None of the kids feigned a response. _Great_ , he thought, setting off for his personal quarters. Quickly unlocking his rooms he went to grab his limited edition copies of _ZOOM_ before running back to the class.

\--

Yamaguchi, in Tsukkishima’s personal opinion, was the best thing since sliced bread and wireless headphones, not that he would openly admit that. The kid had bravely though shyly turned his chair around and begun conversing with Tsukishima, seemingly unfettered by the perpetual ‘resting bitchface’ Tsukishima was known for having. Which is how he was now answering all of Yamaguchi’s questions without much of a second thought.

“So Tsukki, what’s your favourite food?” Yamaguchi still wouldn’t look him straight in the eye for more than a second or two at a time.

“Tsukki?” _A nickname, strange?_

“Ah! I’m sorry it slipped out I ca-” 

“I don’t mind, and it’s strawberry shortcake.” Yamaguchi was blushing all the way up his ears, _cute._ Just when he was going to answer Tsukishima the teacher walked back in holding what seemed to be comic books. 

“Alright! Everybody take a copy and turn to the first page.” Tsukishima didn’t know the comics, they seemed pretty dated from what he garnered from the style. 

“Now you might all be wondering why I brought comic books into class, but these will help you understand a lot about the time you will be spending here. As you know Mr. Ukai is here to mentor and train you to hone your abilities, but what you don’t know is that Mr. Ukai was once in the same situation that you find yourselves in today.”

“So he has powers?” Tsukishima asked.

“Well he _had_ powers and you can learn all about it in the comic books you have in front of you because Mr. Ukai is Zoom. Fastest man alive, best of the best, and leader to the Zenith team!” 

“WOAH so cool! Mr. Ukai is like actually a real life superhero?!” The glowstick child was practically screaming. The other emo child was struck dumbfounded, mouth hanging open like a fish. _Idiots._

“That’s nice and all but he clearly doesn’t want to be here and he clearly doesn’t have the mojo you’re gushing about.” Tsukishima said.

“Tsukki, maybe he got injured or something! You never know.” Yamaguchi piped up.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry, Tsukki.” Takeda looked like he wanted to intervene but with one withering look from Tsukishima he seemed to back down. 

“Well I’m sure you could ask Mr. Ukai all about his powers and hero days. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind!” _And I’m sure he would._

\--

Breakfast was a sacred moment in Ukai’s opinion and apparently these brats didn’t share his superior opinion because they chose that sacred moment to come annoy him.

“Mister Ukai! Mister Ukai! Is it true that you can go like WOOSH and like FWOOSH and that you were like a super cool superhero?!” The kid had grabbed onto his arm with a surprising amount of force. The emo one was giving him a weird look, _what the fuck was up with him?_ Thankfully the other two were hanging back at a respectable distance for this sacred time of day. 

“Look kid, that ain’t me anymore. Go look elsewhere for someone to hero worship.”

“But Mister Ukai! Please can we see your powers? Just a little bit!”

“I lost my powers, the only part of me that still works is my finger.” He said demonstrating “ I used to be able to vibrate my entire body at a speed much quicker than what I’m showing you, but things went tits up during a fight and I lost it all. Now will you all kindly fuck off and let me eat my breakfast in peace?”

“Ah, c’mon guys let’s leave Mr. Ukai alone.” Yamaguchi said, ushering out the younger kids. Tsukishima turned back as he was leaving and whispered a scathing “ _Asshole.”_

_Great._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If taking care of the new zenith team was a group project, Takeda would be only one actually doing work.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello hello!! we hope you enjoy this chapter!! we get to see more of the kids now and have some more interactions between Ukai and them :D

Ukai was going into the training completely blind. He hadn’t had the time to prepare anything (not that he really wanted to or even would have) and had only a passing knowledge of each kid’s power. 

He stayed up late the night prior to the first day of official training trying to figure everything else. 

Tsukishima could turn himself and his clothes invisible, so could he turn objects he was holding invisible as well? Could he selectively turn parts invisible or was it all or nothing? How powerful was Yamaguchi’s telekinesis? Could he move large objects, or only small ones like soda cans? If it was only small objects, could he move multiple at once or was he limited to only one? What was the limit of Kageyama’s super strength? How much energy could Hinata store and release at once? What was the source of Hinata’s energy? Food, light, sleep? Was the energy limited to boosting the kid’s physical power, or could he theoretically ‘shoot’ it out as a blast?

The first thing he would have to do was test all of his theories. He was certain that the scientists would be doing all of their own tests but he still liked to see things for himself.

His first observation was that these kids were not early risers. He had them in the mornings and Takeda would be with them in the afternoons, so he had the great joy of watching the kids all shuffle in to meet him like the walking dead first thing in the morning. It was looking like today was going to be a long day.

\--

As it turned out, the scientists wanted to see exactly how invisible Tsukishima could be. They had set up sensors for Infrared, X-Ray and a few other things to test out how the teen’s invisibility worked.  
Ukai stood up on a platform, looking down at the teen and scientists, Takeda standing to his side.

“Alright, Tsukishima, just stand right in front of the infrared sensor!” Takeda called down. Tsukishima made his way over to the stand and stood in front of it, looking quite bored, and then completely disappeared. “Wow! It’s like he isn’t even in the room anymore!” Takeda exclaimed.

Ukai looked down at the room and saw some of the scientists looking quite confused. He saw a door in the far corner of the room slowly opened and cocked his head to the side, watching as it then shut again.

“He’s not in the room anymore.” Ukai remarked, arms crossed.

“What?!” Takeda said, eyes scanning the room as though he could see the invisible kid if he tried hard enough. The scientists were now all walking around with their arms outstretched, looking confused as hell. “Why would he leave?”

“Because he doesn’t want to be here?” Ukai suggested, “There’s a million things a teen would rather be doing than being tested on by the government.”

Takeda seemed to deflate a bit and Ukai felt only a bit bad. “He’s not here anymore!” He shouted down to the scientists. 

“Alert everyone to be on the lookout. We have a Code Tsukishima on our hands!” Takeda added. Ukai raised an eyebrow.

“Is Code Tsukishima a real thing, or did you just make that up?”

“We have a code for all the kids, in case we lose them.” Takeda said, “I didn't think we were going to need to use them so soon.”

\--

Later, while Tsukishima was still lost and the two younger kids were being tested together, Ukai found himself alone with Yamaguchi. The kid was working on some worksheet that Takeda had apparently given him, and Ukai was watching him while eating M&Ms.

“Hey, kid,” Ukai said as the only warning before chucking a handful of candy at the teen. Yamaguchi looked up when he was called but let out a small shriek. The M&Ms stopped in midair before they could hit the kid in the face. They floated there, almost perfectly still. It was interesting that Yamaguchi hadn’t even moved his hands, meaning he instinctively used the telekinesis as easily as his arms. “Nice catch.”

Yamaguchi gave him a smile, and the M&Ms moved to form a smiley face, then a handful of other shapes like a star and a cube.

“You have a pretty good grip on your power, huh?” Ukai complimented, and Yamaguchi blushed, letting the M&Ms drop down onto the desk and ground.

“Ah, it’s nothing super impressive.” Yamaguchi said, “I can’t do much more than that.”

“You’ve never been trained, kid, that’s a pretty solid base.” Ukai said, “Ever move something bigger than a soda can?”

Yamaguchi looked quite embarrassed and ducked his head, “Yeah, once.”

“Well, go on, don’t leave me hanging.”

“Locker doors, and all the stuff you keep in lockers. Bags and stuff.”

Okay, so there was definitely a whole story being _that_ , but the kid looked pretty uncomfortable, and Ukai wasn’t in the business of poking bruises that weren’t his.

“I don’t really like using my powers.” Yamaguchi said a bit suddenly, “It makes me feel like some kind of freak. I don’t want to hurt anyone because I have some superhuman ability they have no defence against.”

“Even if you don’t want to use them, you still have to train.” Ukai said, “If you don’t at least train them, then the odds of losing control are higher. Losing control is the most dangerous thing when it comes to powers like yours.”

\--

Kageyama and Hinata were supposed to be having a joint training session with weights to test their limits, but Kageyama was the only one there when Ukai finally arrived.

“Where’s Hinata?” Takeda, who had come in with Ukai, asked.

“He’s having a tantrum in one of the side rooms.” Kiyoko said, “He got upset when he couldn’t use his powers on command, and Kageyama teased him.”

Ukai sighed. He didn’t want to deal with a six year old having a tantrum, especially when he hadn’t had a smoke break yet.

“I’ll go check in on him.” Takeda said, “You take care of Kageyama.”

Kageyama was sitting on one of the 2.5 ton blocks, sulking. He glared hard when Ukai made eye contact. 

“Let’s cool down a bit, kid.” Ukai said, approaching the preteen. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t want to be here.” Kageyama said.

“Why not?” Ukai was pretty sure he knew exactly why Kageyama didn’t want to be here, but he was pretty sure letting the kid talk about it was supposed to be a good thing.

“Because it’s horrible here.” Kageyama said, “Everyone’s either an asshole or super annoying, and I’m not allowed to do anything I want to do. I just have to follow orders like a dog.”

“Well, what would you rather be doing?”

“Playing volleyball.”

“Ha!” Ukai let out a laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just that I would probably have said when I first showed up too. I was around your age.” Ukai looked around the room, “Look, why don’t you lift…. A hundred tons, then I’ll go see if the volleyball I hid away is still there.”

The kid’s eyes lit up and he immediately stood and went over to the largest weight they had, ten tons. He grabbed it with ease before chucking it across the room, causing a pile of smaller weights to be knocked down and damaged. The small gaggle of scientists that had been hanging around all startled and collectively let out shrieks of terror, which was pretty hilarious. Kageyama easily reached the one hundred ton goal and just as Ukai was getting ready to leave with the preteen (who actually looked to be in a positive mood for once), Takeda came back from the side room.

“I can’t get Hinata to calm down.” Takeda said, “Can you come and try?”

Right. Crying six year old. He doubted that he would be able to calm the kid down if Takeda couldn’t, but he didn’t really want to turn down the cute scientist.

Hinata was in a mostly empty room, sitting on the ground and crying. There were no lights on, but the kid’s glowing was intense enough that there was no need for them. Ukai took a seat at his right and Takeda on his left.

“So, you couldn't get your powers to work?” Ukai asked, and Hinata nodded. 

“Kageyama said I was stupid because I couldn’t.” Hinata said, “He says if I can’t use them by myself I’m basically worthless.”

“Well, he’s not completely wrong.”

“Mr. Ukai!” Takeda exclaimed, face disbelieving.

“I’m being honest here. If you can’t control your powers at all, then there’s no reason for you to stick around.” The way the kid’s face fell almost made Ukai want to stop talking right then, but he continued speaking. “Right now you’re just a liability.”

“That’s not true!” Hinata said, cheeks puffing out in anger, “I’m going to be a hero!”

“You’re not going to be a hero. Unless you get real good, real fast, we’re going to have to send you home and replace you with a kid that has more potential.”

Hinata seemed to be getting less sad and more mad and determined by the second. Right buttons pushed. Then, everything flashed suddenly, like someone had thrown a flash-grenade into the room. There’s a good amount of heat too, and Ukai briefly worries that his eyebrows just got singed off. When the obscenely bright light finally died down and Ukai’s eyes got back to semi-normality, he found himself staring down at a very determined six year old, no longer glowing. 

“I’m going to be the best.” Hinata declared, “No matter what you think.”

\--

Ukai and Takeda were on their way back from the latest training disaster, also known as a tantrum-fest courtesy of the two youngest members of the team. Ukai was exhausted and itching for a smoke and maybe a drink or two with Takeda. Unfortunately their conversation did not match Ukai’s flirty mood.

“I don’t know that these brats are going to be ready for whatever you’re getting them ready for in time. I mean Tsukishima’s good but he has zero drive, Yamaguchi’s scared of his powers or something, Hinata’s a child, and Kageyama’s oozing too much pre-teen angst to be functional. It’d really help if I knew what I was training them for, Glasses.” Ukai said, opening the door to Takeda’s office.

“Thank you, I just think that you could be nicer to them, having someone believe in you really helps progress. The kids are fragile, they need support and you’re not really giving it. Also you know that I can’t tell you why we’re doing this, it’s classified.” Takeda said, picking up various folders from his desk and turning to leave.

“C’mon Glasses, I won’t tell if you won’t tell.” 

“You know tha-” “Watch out!” Takeda went flying over his coworker’s desk landing in an ungraceful heap.

“Ah shit, are you okay?” Ukai said, trying to help Takeda clean up. Neither of them noticed that while one was taking folders off the floor the other was taking them off the desk.

“I’m fine, just a little fall. But as I was saying you know the rules as well as I do and I wasn’t kidding about being nicer to the kids.” Takeda said, pushing up his glasses. It seemed in that moment that the weird atmosphere the room had previously been bathed in disappeared and both adults realized they had been working against each other. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Ukai said, realizing his blunder with the folders. Takeda seemed to be gathering up his courage. _That wasn’t going to be in Ukai’s favour._

“What happened to you? I mean you were the world’s greatest superhero; the fastest of the fast, the defender of justice. You were the emblem of peace! And now, I don’t really see that in the man before me.” _Ouch_

“What happened? My entire team dying in front of my eyes trying to stop my homicidal best friend from killing innocents is what happened. I lost everyone I cared about and I guess a part of me died with them. I just don’t want these kids to think that this is all going to be sunshine and rainbows because I know just how ruthless the military can be. The top dogs don't see those kids as kids, they see them as weapons, no matter how much of a pretty picture they try to paint, and they don’t care about casualties. I know you care about them a lot and I do too, but if I were you I wouldn’t get too attached.” 

“I won’t give up on them and neither should you, especially with what happened to you! Now excuse me, but I have a meeting to get to!” Takeda said, once again flushed red. Watching him go was hard but the view was kind of worth it in Ukai’s opinion. _What a cute little nerd, don’t worry I won’t give up on them. I’m just trying to protect you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again we see the chapters are getting a bit longer and a bit more serious :P  
> It started pretty cracky, but Zoom's world building leaves a lot to be desired (lol) and we elaborate on some stuff the movie doesn't really touch on more in later chapters, so the upcoming mood will start being more serious.
> 
> see y'all next chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fun chapter with a little serious bit at the end, we hope you enjoy!

Tsukishima, being the early riser that he is, was patiently waiting for everyone else to get up for training today while listening to his music. He was rudely interrupted by a voice coming in from the intercom asking him of all people to go and physically wake up Yamaguchi because he had slept through four alarms. Great, but also _great_ because if Tsukishima was being honest he had a pretty intense bet going with himself on whether or not Yams (as he had been calling him in his head) was a cute sleeper or not. He begrudgingly (nah, he had a pep in his step but pride and all that) got up and went to knock at Yams’ door.

“Yamaguchi are you awake? Breakfast starts in twenty minutes.” No answer, another knock perhaps? Nothing. “Yamaguchi, I’m coming in.” He said, gently opening the door. _Oh my God_ , so he was a cute sleeper. A very cute sleeper, _angel_ , that was knocked out cold. 

“Yamaguchi, wake up we have to go to breakfast. Yama-” 

“Aaahhh, what the fuck?!”

“Calm down, you slept through all the alarms. I only came in to wake you up.”

“I think I just had a heart attack.” Yams said running a hand over his face and then stretching. _Huh, his tummy has freckles too. Get it together, Kei._

“Breakfast is in twenty minutes, if you manage to recover.”

“Ah! Thanks Tsukki, I owe you one!” 

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry Tsukki.” And with that Tsukishima left with only a shred of his sanity and a dignity because he was sure he was blushing like a tomato or that maybe he had actually died and this was heaven. Holy shit was Yamaguchi cute, this gay crisis was getting out of hand fast. 

\--

Breakfast was a calm affair, Tadahi thought to himself as he and Tsukki had a quiet conversation on astrology over their porridge and fruit, peaches for him and strawberries for Tsukki. Hinata and Kageyama were having a staring contest at the next table over and were quiet for once which was a blessing since the two were prone to screaming matches at all hours of the day. Their conversation eventually drifted to talking about their powers, more specifically Tadashi’s powers.

“So what you’re telling me is that you can feel the emotions and intentions a person had when they created something?” Tsukki seemed a little incredulous.

“I mean kinda yeah, it’s complicated and I try not to do it too much so I don’t freak people out.”

“Sounds like you have more than just telekinesis then, maybe even a form of touch telepathy.” Tsukki mused.

“Ah, no I don’t think so I think I have my hands full as it is. Don’t want another reason for people to single me out.” Ah, he was fidgeting again.

“What do you mean ‘single you out’?’ Tsukki looked annoyed. _Great_ , he’s gone and annoyed the one person that wants to be friends with him. _Way to go, Tadashi._

“Um, just some kids thought I was freaky for having my powers because I couldn’t really control them for a long time. My parents weren’t super big fans of them either. It’s nothing, really.”

“Doesn’t sound like nothing to me.” Tsukki was pining him with a scary intense look. Tadashi was fidgeting harder in his seat.

“It’s just playground scuffles, everyone has those. I mean powers are abnormal and dangerous sometimes so they were kinda right to do what they did.”

“Never be ashamed of who you are, other people will never matter in the long-run. They are the ones that should be ashamed for making you feel inadequate. I, for one, think your powers are amazing.”

“Ah no way! Yours are way cooler, I wish I could make things go invisible like you!”

“Shut up Yamaguchi.” Tsukki said, with a hint of a smile on his face.

“Ah, sorry Tsukki.” Tadashi said, with an equally shy smile. 

“AHHHHHH HINATA YOU IDIOT!”

Great, the two idiots somehow managed to ruin the moment again. 

\--  
Training was more of the same that day, except this time around Yamaguchi accidentally sent a chair flying full force at himself instead of hitting the target he was aiming. Tsukki, the bastard, was on break and watching. He had cackled for a solid minute after helping Yamaguchi stand back up from his ungraceful tangle of limbs and chair. Apparently the face he had made when he realized his mistake was worth a million yen. Yamaguchi promptly told him that they were no longer friends unless Tsukki made it up to him with some black market chocolate. 

“Do you know how hard it is to get chocolate from the personnel?”

“I do, which is why I think it is a proper apology.”

“Ah but I didn’t laugh because you made a bad face, it was cute like a cat!” Tsukki was growing desperate.

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Tsukishima. I want chocolate.”

“Oh, the agony.”

“Tsukki, you can literally turn invisible.”

“Touché.”

“I like hazelnut chocolate. Almond is fine too.”

“Ugh.”

“Thank you, Tsukki.” Yamaguchi said, with a shit eating grin on his face.

“Shut up you manipulator.” 

“Sorry you big meanie.” Tsukki fake glared at his ‘apology.’

\--

Ukai was tired of training these kids and the brats were just as tired of listening to him. So, with his old volleyball in hand he walked into the breakroom where the kids were having snack time. 

“Y’all know how to play volleyball? Also, Yamaguchi is that chocolate?” A chorus of yeses followed his question with Yamaguchi slyly hiding his chocolate bar.

“So, you guys wanna play?”

“UHHHH YES!” Hinata screamed, accidentally setting his powers off and breaking the table he slammed his fist on.

“Hinata you idiot.”

“Shut up, meanie, I didn’t mean to.”

“Both of you shut up, I’m getting a migraine from being in your presence.”

“Tsukki, be nice.”

“No.”

“Alright brats, let’s go blow off some steam.”

\-- 

Volleyball with two overpowered kids, a freakishly tall wall of man with an attitude problem, and a shy kid that sometimes accidentally levitates shit is probably the most fun that Ukai has had in his adult life. Shit, if he hadn’t been a government experiment he definitely could see himself as having been a volleyball coach. He knew that the school near his store had a team, the players often coming to buy snacks after their practice. Maybe after this whole mess he could check them out… 

“GAH, why is Stingyshima so tall? And invisible, it’s like impossible to get past him.” Hinata yelled after having let go of another burst of energy to jump.

“It’s not my fault you’re a shrimp.” Tsukishima said, from somewhere on the court. The ball was seemingly received in thin air where Yamaguchi set it for Tsukishima to spike. They scored a point.

“Woah, nice kill Tsukki!” Yamaguchi said, throwing his hand up for a high-five. Presumably he got one, Ukai couldn’t tell. 

“You’re up to serve Yams, kill em dead.” Tsukki said, from the right side maybe?

“Oh my God, Tsukki.” 

“I think I’m hilarious.”

“GAH just serve already!” Hinata yelled.

“You asked for it shrimpy!” Yamaguchi said, doing his signature float serve but he sneezed just as it was going over the net and his powers set off. The ball went flying straight for the observation window shattering it.

“Ah shit, run!” Ukai said setting off in a sprint. The nerds that were watching them also ran away, squealing like little piggies. 

\--

The kids had gone off to bed after the volleyball game fiasco which left Ukai alone with nothing to do and a penchant for trouble. Perhaps he should interrupt a meeting, he mused. A meeting with Takeda in it preferably, just to see how red he could get him today. With that in mind he set off to find his favourite nerd. He happened to be in a meeting with his grandfather, perfect! 

“Good evening party people! Just coming in to do a routine fun check and let me say from the grim faces around this room you’re looking to fail the examination.” Ukai said, busting open the doors and stealing a hat from a nearby officer. 

“Zoom, get the fuck out of here, this is a serious meeting.” His grandfather said. 

“Ah, no can do. See I want to know what the fuck you’re getting me to prep these kids for since Glasses won’t tell me.” Ukai said, sitting on the table.

“Takeda doesn’t even know you moron, it’s a need to know basis and neither of you are even remotely close to having clearance.”

“Ooh tough luck, I don’t care.” His grandfather was getting red in the face, perfect!

“Keishin Ukai you better get the hell out of here or I’ll have you removed!” 

“Man, that’s gotta be the first time you’ve called me by my first name in decades. You must be really grumpy, did someone not make your coffee the way you wanted it? Is it your back?”

“Your father would be ashamed!”

“Too bad he was never around, kinda gets it from you if I’m being honest.”

“You little shit, it’s your mom’s fault you’re fucked in the head!”

“Ah, but you see my formative years were spent with you, you sack of horseshit. Look in the mirror before coming at me.”

“Men! Take him away!” Ukai decided to not be too contrary and stood up with his hands in a placating gesture.

“Aw, cutting our bonding time off so soon? I mean I guess it is about the time you go take your pills.” Ukai said, shit eating grin on his face.

“Shut up!”

“This was nice, we should do this again sometime soon. Glasses, you’re looking great by the way. Is it a new lab coat?” He said getting shoved out of the meeting room. Ah, what a success. 

\-- 

Ukai was about to turn in for the night when he saw Takeda coming towards his rooms. Sensing an opportunity he quickly caught up to him.

“Hey Glasses, how did the meeting go?” He said easily. Takeda stopped dead in his tracks.

“Ukai, I need to talk to you in private. Can you come to my quarters with me?” He said, nervously.

“Uh, sure but don’t you want me to buy you dinner first or something?” Ukai joked.

“Ukai, please.” Takeda looked serious, and maybe even a bit scared.

“Alright, lead the way.” He replied. 

Once they were in Takeda’s rooms he immediately turned around to lock the doors and shut the blinds. He looked panicked.

“Look, Takeda I don’t know what’s going on or what you want but I’m not here to hurt you or anything, please calm down.” Ukai said, trying to appease the frazzled scientist.

“I’m scared, Keishin.” He said, rubbing his hands together as if trying to warm them up.

“Okay, how about we sit down and take a minute to gather our thoughts and then you can tell me whatever you need to.” Ukai said, guiding a frazzled Takeda to sit on a nearby sofa. His mind was freaking out at the fact that Takeda called him by his first name. Takeda took in a big breath and began talking.

“So I thought about what you said the other day, your time as Zoom specifically. And I knew that things didn’t really end well for the Zenith team back in the day but I never thought it was that bad. So I did some research.” He rushed out.

“Okay, that’s okay. I’m sorry if I scared you, I was only trying to warn you.”

“Don’t apologize. What I read, what I found, it made me sick. You didn’t deserve that, none of it, especially the Gamma rays.” Takeda said, grabbing hold of Ukai’s hands.

“Look, what happened in the past can stay in the past for all I care. I’m alright now, so no need to to worry.”

“No, we _do_ need to worry.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Your grandfather is getting impatient with the children’s progress. He says they won’t be ready in time for when the ‘imminent threat’ will reach us. I’m scared he’s going to want to use the Gamma rays. I know he said they wouldn’t but you saw how he was today. I don’t want the kids to go through what you had to go through.” Takeda looked like he was about to cry.

“Look, for now the kids aren’t going to get the Gamma rays, okay?”

“Yes.”

“Good, so if and when the old man decides to do that we’ll be ready, okay?”

“Yes.”

“So, we have to keep a low profile. Keep training the kids the way we have so far and when it comes time we’ll do what needs to be done, okay?”

“Yes, okay. Thank you.” 

“You feel better now?” A meek yes was the only reply he got.

“I’m sorry for freaking out on you.”

“No worries, I’m used to it.” Ukai said, with a wink. “But, uh, what’s up with the first name basis thing?”

“Ah, I’m sorry it just slipped out. It won’t happen again I promise!” Takeda said, redder than a tomato. Cute.

“Don’t worry about it, I like it.” Ukai said, receiving a squeak in response. 

“Make sure you get some rest, we wouldn’t want our best nerd out of commission because he couldn’t sleep.”

“I will, thank you again Keishin.” Ukai stood up and headed to the door turning one last time to say goodnight.

“Goodnight, Ittetsu.”

“Goodnight!” He squeaked out. 

\--

Ukai was in love, actually he was in Love (with a capital, to make it more official). However nice it was to be in love, he still needed to figure out a way to get the kids stronger, faster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kageyama finally got the volleyball game he was promised, yay! 
> 
> \+ ukai and tsukki realizing they caught feelings


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> KFC makes everything better, yo.
> 
> Here's a fun, mostly filler chapter.

akeda seemed to think it would be fun for the kids to get to see what was going on in some of the equipment testing labs, specifically the ones making their own future gear. Ukai had some vague memories of those labs, since he’d spent some time there trying on different fabrics to see if he would vibrate out of them or not while using his power.

He wasn’t looking forward to it. He was sure it was going to be a boring few hours making sure Hinata and Kageyama weren’t touching things there weren’t supposed to be. Until he saw, wandering around the lab, the robot. The same robot as twenty years ago.

“Holy fuck.” He said, approaching the robot who stopped and loudly beeped a greeting up at him. “You kept him?”

“Well, he _was_ part of the team.” Takeda said with a smile, “Some of the guys got really attached.”

“Woah! Is that a robot?!” Hinata asked, rushing up to poke at it.

“Yeah, he was built for my team back in the day.” Ukai said, “His name is Noya. Pretty sure that’s an acronym for something, but I couldn’t be bothered to remember.”

The kids all crowded around Noya and the robot seemed to relish in the attention. Yamaguchi reached out a hand and put it on the robot’s chassis and let out a quiet, “Woah.” He turned back to the group with bright eyes, “He’s got feelings, just like a person! It’s so cool!”

“Ah, he’s only programmed to stimulate emotions.” Ukai said, wondering just what the teen was on about. Tsukishima glared at him, looking surprisingly hostile.

“He says you got old.” Yamaguchi said, Noya beeping approval at the same time.

“Hey!” Ukai said, deciding to humour both the kids and the robot, apparently. “You aren’t doing too hot yourself. Not very state of the art anymore.”

“He’s actually still very advanced when it comes to both hardware and software.” Takeda piped up unhelpfully, “Since he was programmed to be self-learning, he’s very up-to-date. And he’s still one of the fastest models around.”

“His self-learning must be how he became sentient.” Tsukishima said, Noya beeping in response.

“So we’re just going to accept the sentient robot now?” Kageyama asked, arms crossed, “I don’t believe it.”

Noya suddenly moved forward and rammed into the preteen, not hard enough to push him over, more of a playful shove. “Hey!” Kageyama said, shoving back, thankfully not using his powers.

“So what was he built for?” Tsukishima asked.

“To be a companion mostly,” Ukai said, “Since we weren’t ever allowed out, we sent him out in our place. Mostly snack runs, though he did go out to get us festival goodies a few times a year.”

There was a slight souring of the previously cheery mood at the mention of festivals, and Ukai realized the kids hadn’t been allowed out of the compound at all since they’d first arrived and it didn’t seem like they would be allowed out any time soon. If it was anything like his team, it’d be a good two years until they were field ready and allowed back out. Considering Hinata’s age though, it might be even longer. Suddenly, he got an idea. He knelt down to Noya’s level and whispered to the robot, “Hey, do they still have that UFO in hangar four?”

Noya beeped a ‘yes!’, though it was quieter than the usual volume he used. Great. Now he just needed a good time to sneak the kids out. It would be nice to invite Takeda along too, but despite Ukai’s feelings, that would probably bring too much attention.

Lunch proved to be the perfect time, since the kids were all given a bit of free time. He got them all to follow him under the pretense of playing volleyball but brought them to hangar four instead.

“What is this place?” Kageyama asked as Ukai opened the doors.

“We aren’t actually going to be playing volleyball, are we?” Tsukishima guessed.

“Well, you caught me.” Ukai said, turning the lights on to reveal the hovering spacecraft.

“Is that a UFO!?” Hinata asked, bouncing all over the place and steadily getting closer and closer to the thing. Ukai could see the kid’s glowing get just a bit more intense than usual, which meant he was getting ready for a big, powered-up jump. Just as Ukai was getting ready to call out to the kid _not_ to jump onto the UFO, Hinata took the jump but was stopped in mid-air, just a few feet off the ground. He floated down gently and was set down on the ground.

“I don’t think we should be touching the UFO, Hinata.” Yamaguchi said, “You could’ve gotten hurt.”

“You should’ve let him fall.” Tsukishima said, “So he could learn from his mistakes.”

“Tsukki!” Yamaguchi chastised, as Kageyama smiled.

“Thank you for stopping him from jumping onto the ship.” Ukai said, “Because we’re going to go into the ship, and that’s not where the door is.” He grabbed the control pad and pushed onto the buttons to open the door. The kids were even more wowed at the inside of the ship and all its sleek, alien technology.

“What are we even doing?” Tsukishima asked, failing at pretending to not be excited by the spaceship.

“Going to KFC.” Ukai replied, sitting down at the helm of the ship and sticking his hands into the weird control goo.

“KFC…?” The kids all echoed, sounding and looking confused as hell. The ship jerked a bit as Ukai got it flying and out of the hangar.

“Well, you kids have been cooped up for a while now, and the food here isn’t exactly top notch. I thought an outing was in order.”

“Won’t it freak people out that we’re in, y’know, a UFO?” Yamaguchi asked.

Ukai shrugged, “Not our problem.”

For a few minutes, everyone was silent as the kids looked out over the landscape, until suddenly both Kageyama and Hinata turned their attention back to Ukai. “Can I drive?” They asked, in perfect sync.

“Hey, I asked first!” Hinata whined.

“No, I did, idiot!” Kageyama retorted, “You’re too little to drive anyway!”

“Hey, you can both drive,” Ukai said, shifting out of the seat, “One on the way there and one on the way back. Hinata first.”

“Yay!” Hinata cheered, settling in the chair and sticking his tongue out at Kageyama. He stuck his hands in the goo with no hesitation but then visibly shivered.

“Kinda gross, right?” Ukai said, leaning down to help the kid and point him in the right direction, “It reacts to what you want it to do, so concentrate on going in a straight line for now.”

Hinata nodded in affirmation, and while he was able to keep going in mostly the same direction, the UFO kept bobbing up and down, sometimes getting dangerously close to the ground. To make sure the kid wouldn’t crash into the KFC, Ukai took over as they neared. He half expected to not get a response from the KFC workers because of their current mode of transport but was pleasantly surprised when a giddy sounding voice came from the other side of the mic asking, “Hello, welcome to KFC, what can I get for you today?”

All four kids started spouting out orders at the same time, and Ukai decided to order for them based on the vague impression he was getting from their chatter, along with some food for himself, Takeda and even Kiyoko. 

“We come in peace!” Hinata joked into the mic as they were getting ready to leave, and Ukai could have sworn he heard the voice on the other end say, _“Take me with you…”_

On the way back, he coached Kageyama on how to drive the ship since he seemed to struggle more than Hinata had, while enjoying some nice KFC chicken. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi had initially retreated away to eat together but the teens now seemed to be humouring Hinata about something as the little redhead bounced around them. Ukai couldn’t help but smile at the scene. It was nice. For a moment, he forgot the inevitable shitshow that would be waiting back at the base.

Leaving the UFO, Ukai and the kids were greeted by a large number of armed personnel and a very pissed looking Takeda.

“What were you doing!?” Takeda asked angrily, stomping up to Ukai. “Do you have any idea how worried we all were?”

Ukai wasn’t sure how to reply - he had never really seen Takeda mad before, and he didn’t think there was anything he could say to placate the scientist.

“I can’t believe you! I literally cannot even begin to understand why you just did _that!_ ” Takeda continued, “Not only did you steal government property, you took the kids with you without telling anyone!”

“Look, we’re fine, okay? I even brought you food.” Ukai said, unsure of how else to try and diffuse the situation.

“I don’t want your food.” Takeda said, “I want you to apologize!”

“I’m sorry, okay? I thought the kids deserved to go out for a little while.” He sighed, “I won’t do it again.”

Takeda seemed to deflate a bit and he sighed, “Fine. Apology accepted.” Then, he snatched the food from Ukai’s hands, “But this better be good or I’m still going to be mad tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As we tried to figure out who would be Mr. Pibbs we had very few criteria - small, screams decently often and would be seen with Kiyoko. The obvious conclusion would be Noya.
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter focused entirely on the kids today!

Tadashi was having a nice lunchtime conversation with Tsukki on the ethics of reviving dinosaurs and creating a Jurassic Park. Tsukki was one hundred percent on board with bringing back dinosaurs at all costs, Yamaguchi wasn’t as convinced because the movies had scared him as a kid. Tsukki was in the middle of a passionate rant when they had all been corralled into going to a new training exercise. The new training exercise sounded like a medieval torture device from the description the operator was giving them. 

“So essentially this is kind of like a top down washing machine that shoots out paintballs from the walls as the three bottom pieces rotate in random ways at varying speeds. The goal is to smack the red button without getting hit. It’s meant to simulate active warfare.”

“That sounds dangerous.” Tadashi said from behind Tsukki. 

“Ah, nothing to worry about kiddos! This is just training!” The overly cheerful operator said.

“Yeah, that’s nice and all but paintballs hurt and the protective gear you gave us isn’t really padded. We don’t even have helmets.” Tsukki pointed out. 

“Nonsense, this is perfectly safe.”

“No thanks, I’m out.” Tsukki said before disappearing.

“Tsukki!” Tadashi exclaimed, but no response came. He could swear he felt something brushing his hand though.

“Alright! I guess we’ll get started without Mr.Tsukishima. Takeda go call a code Tsukishima, will you?” The operator said not even glancing towards Mr. Takeda. What a rude guy.

“Oh! Um, sure. Good luck guys! I’ll be watching the whole time if you need me and Ukai will be with the operator!” Takeda said before setting off. 

“Is it rainbow paint?” Hinata asked before they were shoved into the simulator.

“You betcha, special just for you! Have fun!” The operator said from the intercom and the simulation began

\--

Two hours later saw them returning to their common room bruised, sore, and covered in paint. Yamaguchi was exhausted, Kageyama and Hinata were more than a handful to handle without having to deal with projectiles being shot at them. It was going to take forever to scrub all the paint off himself. Worst still was that Tsukki wasn’t even there, presumably still in stealth mode. 

“Alright you two, go and shower and try to get the paint off as best as possible. We’ll go have supper together once we’re all clean. Sounds good?” Tadashi said, as he struggled out of his protective suit. Tired affirmatives were all he got from the two tired kids as they left in the direction of the showers. Tadashi sat down with a huff and closed his eyes in a pitiful attempt at rest. Barely two minutes he felt a figure looming over him.

“What do you want Tsukki?”

“Nothing, are you okay? Those bruises look pretty painful.”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s not like you care anyways.” Tadashi said, eyes still closed.

“What are you going on about? Of course I care.”

“If you cared you wouldn’t have left me alone to deal with two kids in a dangerous situation or you would’ve at least been here when we got back. Clearly you couldn’t be bothered.”

“I’m sorry, I was in solitary confinement. I didn’t mean to make you feel alone. Was it that bad?” Tsukki at least had the decency to sound remorseful.

“Take a wild guess.” Yamaguchi said, taking his t-shirt off to show his bruises.

“Jesus, I don’t know what to say. I should have been there.” Yamaguchi finally opened his eyes.

“Yes, you should have Tsukki, because we’re a team. I’m scared of what we're going to face off against and that you’re just going to leave me. Either stop pretending or get your act together because I need to know.”

“I wouldn’t leave you in battle, you have to know that.”

“How? You’ve never stuck around to back me up in any training exercise. All I know is that we’re the only two that have any real chance at keeping Hinata and Kageyama safe. That and that you clearly don’t want to be doing this and that you’re reacting childishly by running away.”

“You’re right, I don’t want to be here. But I don’t think we have a choice anymore.”

“We don’t, and we have to live with that. Now, are you with me or not? Tell me you have my back and I’ll have yours until the end.” Tadashi said, defiantly raising his gaze to meet Tsukki’s

“You have me, I promise.”

“Good. I’m still mad at you, though, and I will be until this paint comes off.”

“I think you’re justified in your anger. I’ll make it up to you.”

“I want more chocolate.”

“Fuck.”

“Language, there are children around.” Tadashi said with a sly grin. 

“Fudge the kids, and go take a shower. I’ll set up a movie night.” Tsukki said, blushing.

“Look at you being all nice and doing things for the kids.”

“Shut up Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry, Tsukki.” He replied in a singsong voice while sauntering away. 

\--

When Yamaguchi came back with the two brats, Tsukki had just finished setting up two blanket forts and getting snacks. The two kids were practically vibrating beside Yamaguchi.

“Everybody got their jammies on?” Tsukki asked in an overtly enthusiastic tone.

“Heck yeah!” Hinata screamed at the top of his lungs before leaping into the blanket fort.

“Not so loud idiot!” Kageyama yelled, getting in after Hinata.

“Wow, this is so cool Stingyshima!” Hinata said, his voice muffled by the fort.

“Yeah! Since when are you so nice?” Kageyama said, poking his head out of the fort.

“Shut up and enjoy it, brats.” Tsukki grumbled, turning to start the movie; some not very recent film about figure-skating called Blades of Glory. Yamaguchi turned to him and mouthed a thank you. The smile on his face was worth the effort Tsukki had put in to do this, he thought.

“C’mon, we have our own fort.” Tsukki said, grabbing Yamaguchi’s hand and leading him inside.

“Wow, so chivalrous.” Yamaguchi quipped.

“Shut up Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry Tsukki.” Yamaguchi replied snuggling up beside him, and if Tsukki went red in the face that was a secret that would be kept between him and God until the day he died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yamaguchi knows exactly how to manipulate Tsukishima to get more chocolate and movie nights.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! Thank you everyone who left us kudos and nice comments!! Those always make our day!! <3
> 
> In this chapter, Tsukishima and Ukai both have some fun talks with Kiyoko and have to actually confront their feelings for once.

It seems that even with Tsukishima joining the team for the paintball exercises, the kids weren’t ever able to reach the button. They’d tried plenty of strategies and different combos with their powers, but they were just always falling short of their goal. There’s a growing worry among everyone that the kids won’t be ready for the ‘imminent threat’ whether they know what that is or not.

All that anyone can do is keep training the kids and hope for the best.

\---

One of the biggest mysteries in the base is how exactly Hinata’s power works. He stores energy, and then can use it to enhance his physical abilities or to create a flash-bang effect. When he stores energy for too long he starts glowing. No one knew what exactly provided all the extra energy - was it just a passive gain over time? Did his diet affect it? (He did have an unnaturally large appetite for a child his age).

Kiyoko was put in charge of taking blood and tissue samples from the kid. She’d had enough interactions with him to be able to convince him things weren’t going to hurt and to stay calm, but Kageyama still hovers nearby like a guard dog.

“Okay, I’m going to prick your finger now.” Kiyoko warned, bringing the needle close to Hinata’s outstretched hand. Carefully, she pricked his fingertip, and immediately he began crying. The container filled up quicker than expected and there was a pretty good amount of blood for such a small prick.

“You hurt him!” Kageyama shouted, looking way more indignant than what would be expected in the situation.

“It’s going to stop bleeding in just a minute.” Kiyoko said, trying to placate the preteen. Noya, who had been mostly still and watching, let out a series of intense sounding beeps, beginning to circle around Kageyama. Kiyoko wished she could understand the little robot, because it was strangely protective of her and it could sometimes become a nuisance.

Kageyama suddenly moved, and for a minute Kiyoko was scared he was actually going to hit her, but instead he slammed a fist down on the steel table and made it crumple. She stood and crossed her arms, giving her sternest look to the preteen who suddenly looked extremely sheepish.

“I’m sorry Miss Kiyoko!” Kageyama squeaked out, bowing to her before running away. Hinata, suddenly abandoned by his near-constant companion, stared up at her with wide, tear-filled eyes. She softened immediately.

“I think I have some superhero-themed band aids,” She told him, “Would you like one?”

\---

Kiyoko kn43 that Tsukishima can turn things other than himself invisible. He turned his clothes and glasses invisible just as easily as he did himself. By extension, he should have been able to turn things he was holding invisible as well but he didn’t seem to be able to. He can make them partially vanish for very brief moments but not much.

She monitored his brain waves as he focused on turning an apple invisible, seeing the waves spike in concentration. It still didn’t work.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get it.” Tsukishima said, putting the apple down. “You should focus on more important things.”

“Is the development and understanding of your powers not important to you?” She asked.

He shrugged noncommittally, “It’s not a particularly powerful or impressive power.”

“It’s more than what most people have.” She countered, “You have great control and a huge amount of potential. You have an ability that no one else in the world does. Is that not enough justification for me to take interest and for you to put in the effort?”

He stared at her for a brief moment before letting out a loud sigh and picking up the apple again. This time, it disappeared fully.

\---

The kids had spent most of the day with Kiyoko and Takeda had been busy, leaving Ukai to wander the base aimlessly and smoke more cigarettes than usual. He’d explored around, trying to see which of his old haunts still stood and which had been destroyed. During the late evening, his wandering finally brought him to the room that held the gamma ray machine. It was exactly as he remembered it, as though the past twenty years hadn’t passed. The only thing out of place was Tsukishima, sitting in the dark. The teen was leaning up against the wall directly across from the chair Ukai had sat in during his gamma treatments.

Tentatively, he took a seat next to Tsukishima, who didn’t even turn his head in acknowledgement. They sat in silence for a while, before Tsukishima spoke up.

“Did it hurt?”

“Hm?” Ukai asked, “The gamma radiation, you mean?”

“It couldn’t have been pleasant.”

“Yeah, it hurt a lot. Kind of this intense burny feeling as it happened, then maybe a day or two of feeling okay, then you’d get super sick for a few days. Then you’d get all fucked up trying to control your powers.”

“How old were you?”

Ukai couldn’t comfortably say when his first gamma treatment had been - a lot of his early teen years were a haze that blended together with no real definition. “Twelve at the youngest, I think, but maybe earlier. Why do you ask?”

“I’ve been thinking about whether or not they would actually use the gamma on us. Some of the higher ups have been getting tenser lately.”

“You noticed too, huh?”

“Well, they aren’t exactly masters of subtlety.”

“I can’t make promises I can’t keep, but Takeda and I are going to do our best to make sure none of you get dosed.”

Tsukishima seemed to contemplate that for a moment, “But isn’t that a chance it would be for the best? I mean, a few sick days to get a huge power boost?”

Ukai doesn’t expect the mess of emotions that suddenly surges up at the teen’s question. Anger, fear, sadness, confusion. “No. There are no positives to gamma treatments.”

Tsukishima hummed and again silence fell.

“You don’t need gamma treatments.” Ukai said, “You’re plenty strong already, and if you applied yourself more, you’d really be a force to be reckoned with. Your biggest roadblock is your own hesitation and self-doubt, and once you manage to get past that, you’ll be unstoppable. And whether you like it or not, you’re the oldest one on your team. Hinata and Kageyama are relying on you to be able to protect them, and Yamaguchi needs you to watch his back. If you just… give in and give up, they’ll all fall apart.”

“So, what? I’m supposed to be their illustrious leader or something?”

Ukai chuckled, “I’m not asking you to become a leader if you don’t want to be. Trust me, I know how much it sucks to have that much responsibility thrown at you. I just want you to realize you’ve got more potential than you think, and that you aren’t as alone in this as it seems.”

Tsukishima stood suddenly, seemingly distracted. 

“You okay?” Ukai asked tentatively.

“Yeah.” Tsukishima replied, “I just have a lot to think about. Did you plan this all out with Miss Shimizu, or was it coincidence?”

“Huh?”

\---

After the heavy chat he had with Tsukishima, Ukai was feeling a bit tired but couldn’t sleep, so we walked around some more to clear his mind before returning to his quarters. He ended up wandering by the old locker room his team would use before their missions. He’d been avoiding it the most, because it was filled with reminders of his failures, but he felt a certain need to lay his old demons to rest.  
The room looked completely untouched, random knick knacks still sitting around, frozen in time for the past twenty years. He guessed that after the grand failure the original Zenith team had been, no one had wanted to be the one to disturb the room. The day of the tragedy, they’d all left like usual, joking and having fun. A half-solved rubik's cube that Takinoue had been working on still sat abandoned on the bench. He’d been so certain about solving it as soon as they came back from their mission, but he’d never made it home. Despite everything though, the room wasn’t dusty. Someone had been keeping it clean. He went to unlock his locker, still remembering the combination after all the years, but found it unlocked.  
He opened the door and came face to face with his old team’s smiling faces. The most recent team picture they had - they must have been fifteen then, all in matching black jumpsuits. He could feel a lump in his throat and tears pricking his eyes, but distracted himself with the new suit in the locker. It was black and sleek, and he recognized the material as the specially engineered one for his speed. Strangely, it wasn’t made to fit his teenage body but rather how he was currently.

“I wasn’t expecting you to come here tonight, Mr. Ukai.” A voice spoke from behind him, and he turned to see Kiyoko. The young scientist was dressed casually, “But when I saw you coming this way, I couldn’t help but follow.”

“Do you come here often?” Ukai questioned, looking at the young woman skeptically. Had she been the one keeping the place clean?

“Every once in a while. No one else ever does.” She answered, “I like keeping it clean. There aren’t any graves for your team, so this is the closest to a memorial they have.”

She says it simply, like it’s just a fact without any emotion attached to it. She watched him with thoughtful eyes for a moment.

“And why do you care?”

She sat down on the bench and picked up the rubik’s cube, examining it before setting it down. “Why shouldn’t I?”

Well. That wasn’t really a point he could argue against.

“Are you the one who made the suit?”

Her eyes lit up ever so slightly and she quickly walked over to the locker. She ran a hand over the suit’s fabric. “I began making it as soon as I heard you were going to be joining us. The fabric is mostly identical to the stuff used in your original suits but I tweaked it to be more breathable and lightweight.”

“You do know I don’t have powers anymore, right? The suit is useless.”

She seemed to deflate a bit, before getting a more determined look on her face. “They could come back.”

“I seriously doubt th-”

“Why?” She cut in, “Why do you doubt yourself so much? You believe in the kids and their potential. You don’t like it when anyone sells themselves short, so why is it okay to do it to yourself?” Delicately she picked up the picture of the team, “Do you think they’d want to see you like this?”

He let out a shaky breath, “That’s quite a low-blow, Kiyoko.”

“I’m not here to coddle your self-loathing.” She said, “One failure, no matter how great, shouldn’t make you give up forever. You’re being given a second chance, which is more than what some of us can even hope for. If you keep avoiding your past, you’ll miss the present.”

Kiyoko’s words echoed around in Ukai’s head as he tried to find some way to deny her or defend himself but he couldn’t. “Thank you. For keeping the room clean.” He said, turning and leaving before she could say anything else to him.

He walked back towards his room, eager for some alone time. It was nearing ten o’clock now, which meant that all of the kids would have gone to bed already.

Nearing his room, he saw the glow underneath the crack in the door, which was strange since he remembered turning the light off before leaving. Pushing open the door, he became even more confused upon seeing the light was not from his lamp but rather from Hinata, who sat on his couch like he belonged there.

“You’re supposed to be in bed.” Ukai said, staring down at the boy. He knew very well how mad Takeda and Kiyoko would be if they found out the kid was skipping curfew, and he didn’t particularly want to deal with the kid after his emotionally charged evening.

“I couldn’t sleep.” Hinata replied, “Can I stay with you tonight?”

“Wouldn’t you rather stay with Yamaguchi or Kageyama…?” Ukai suggested hopefully.

Hinata shook his head, so Ukai sighed and sat next to him on the couch. “Any reason you couldn’t sleep? Nightmares?”

“Do you love me, Mr. Ukai?” Hinata asked. For a second, Ukai felt like a computer that had just crashed. Leave it to the six-year-old to open a conversation with a hard hitting question like that. How the hell was he supposed to reply to that?

“Yes…” Ukai said hesitantly, “But why’re you asking, Hinata?”

“So you wouldn’t replace me with someone better, right?”

Ukai’s mind flashed back to when he’d threatened the kid with that back on the first day of training. Was this some sort of supremely delayed reaction to that? “Of course not. You know I was joking that time I said that.”

Hinata smiled at him, seemingly cheered by his response, but still looking much more morose than usual.

“What brought this on? Did Kageyama say something again?”

“My mama replaced me.” Hinata said, “She had another baby because I’m not there anymore.”

“Your mom didn’t have a baby to replace you.” Ukai reassured, “She’s been waiting for that baby for months now, longer than you’ve been here.”

“So she sent me here to get rid of me!?”

“No!” Ukai felt a bit of panic, because it looked like Hinata was about to cry.

“But she doesn’t love me anymore! She didn’t tell me she loved me when we stopped talking on the phone and she always does!”

A minor oversight on the mom’s part probably, frazzled by a new baby, but a huge deal to a kid who didn’t know any better. Telling that to Hinata would probably not help the situation in the slightest. He pet Hinata’s hair, something that usually got the kid to calm down.

“Hey, you still have me, right? And Takeda, Kageyama, Yamaguchi. Even Tsukishima and Shimizu. Let’s go to bed. Everything’s going to feel better in the morning.”

Hinata nodded and plopped down on the couch. Ukai got into his own bed but soon found he couldn’t sleep due to the kid’s bright glow. “Think you could do anything about your glowing?” He asked across the room. Hinata made a sleepy noise of affirmation and the room suddenly got much much brighter then completely dark. Ukai’s eyes stung, and he wanted to reprimand the kid, but it seemed Hinata had already fallen asleep.

\--

The following morning, Ukai worried that the team might perform worse during their simulations than usual after the late evenings Tsukishima and Hinata had. It seemed that his worry was completely unfounded though, as they managed to beat it for the first time ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anyone was curious, the title from this fic comes from Dermot Kennedy's song 'Lost'!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A mix of a bit of funny and some serious in this one! (all under the context of a middle school dance-like event)
> 
> hope you enjoy!

Takeda was beyond proud of the progress his kids had made in such a short amount of time, and if he considered them ‘his’ kids that was no one's business but his own. Earlier in the day him, Kiyoko and a few of the other scientists and doctors had decided they would throw a sort of graduation party for kids. That was why he was blowing up medical gloves into ‘balloons’ with a random canister of helium. Kiyoko was working on making a banner and Ukai, of all people, was trying to set up a DJ booth with little success. Takeda finished up his last ‘balloons’ before getting up to go help a floundering Ukai.

“Need some help?” He said, coming up behind the blond. 

“God, yes please. I don’t know from what century this stuff dates but I can’t seem to figure it out.” He said, turning around hands full of wires. 

“Is it because it’s not colour coded?” He asked, taking the wires out of Ukai’s hands.

“Maybe.” The man replied, meekly. 

“Well, how about I tell you what goes where while I set up the computer?”

“You are my hero.”

“We’ll see.” He replied, getting to work.

\-- 

“There we go, all done!” Takeda exclaimed when they finally connected the last cables. “And we have just enough time to go freshen up before the kids get here.”

“Right, we have to look nice.” Ukai said, from under the DJ set up. He slowly crawled out and stood up with a groan.

“We do, which is why I am leaving you right now! Tadashi said he might need help, he didn’t have a lot of clothes with him.” Takeda replied, as he hurriedly left. 

“Right, fancy clothes. You can do this Ukai.” Ukai mumbled to himself.

\--

Tadashi was nervously standing outside Takeda’s door trying to find the courage to knock when the door suddenly opened, revealing a smiling Takeda.

“I had a feeling you’d be too shy to knock.” The man said, ushering Tadashi inside. 

“I’m sorry, I think I’m freaking out right now.” Tadashi said.

“I know just how you feel. Now you said you didn’t have anything to wear?”

“I don’t have much clothes with me and I don’t own many fancy things to begin with.” He said, wringing his hands together.

“Don’t you worry I have just the thing for you. It’s something I bought a while back but it turned out to be too big. Dangers of online shopping, you know how it is.” He said, pulling from his closet a gorgeous baby blue floral print short-sleeved chemise.

“Wow, it’s beautiful. Are you sure?” He said, feeling the fabric in his hands. It was very soft, silk maybe?

“Of course, better you than me. Handsome young boys like you deserve nice things.” Takeda replied.

“Thank you so much!” Yamaguchi said, hugging him. 

“You are very welcome, my dear! Now go and get your man!” Takeda said, pushing Tadashi out of his room.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just insinuate what you just insinuated.” Tadashi said, blushing because of how mortified he was.

“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit.” Takeda replied, stifling a laugh before closing the door.

“Right, I can do this.” Tadashi whispered to himself as he rushed to his room to go get changed. 

\--

The vast room that housed the gamma ray machine had been successfully turned into what could only be described as a very successful version of a middle school dance in a gym. It was charming, Tadashi thought, that the staff had worked so hard to do something nice for them. Hinata and Kageyama seemed to be having a dance contest with Noya, though it was unclear whether they were working together or against one another. From the smile that threatened to split a glowing Hinata’s face open, Tadashi guessed he had been spotted. 

“Yamaguchi! Hi! Come here, we’re having like the coolest dance competition ever and Kageyama is totally losing!” Hinata said, jumping up and down at a height that was unnatural for one of his stature. As much as Tadashi liked Hinata and Kageyama, he didn’t really want to take part in their endless contests. Resigning himself to his fate, Tadashi went to answer when a voice answered for him.

“Yamaguchi and I were going to hang out, he’ll come see you brats later tonight.” Tsukki said from behind him.

“Aw man.” Hinata and Kageyama responded at the same time. 

“Sorry guys, later I promise.” Tadashi said before turning around and saying in a much quieter voice; “Thank you so much, I didn’t know how I was going to get out of that one.”

“I had a feeling you were just going to try and stick it out and slowly go insane. I thought I could step in, even though it is slightly less satisfying than possibly seeing that go down.” Tsukki replied, with a slight smirk.

“Wow, my knight in shining armor strikes again! What would I do without you to save me from the evil clutches of Hinata and Kageyama?”

“Probably cry and wonder where you went wrong in life to be cursed like this.”

“Scary accurate portrayal of what I could’ve been. How shall I ever repay you, oh kind hero?” Yamaguchi replied, fake swooning while trying to stifle a laugh. 

“Well, you could accept this humble present here in my hand.” Tsukki replied, making a small pendant appear out of thin air. He seemed almost shy.

“Is that-”

“A moon, yes. I saw that you wore a bare chain and thought maybe you would like something for it so I made this. I’m sorry if it was presumptuous of me.” He said.

“It’s beautiful and not presumptuous at all. May I?” Tadashi said, reaching to touch it.

“Of course, it’s yours afterall.” Tsukki said, blushing.

When Tadashi touched the pendant he felt a rush of emotions that were not his own. Fear, determination, passion, and love. Those were the emotions that Tsukki had had while making this for him, it was the most touching thing Tadashi had ever experienced. 

“Ah, please don’t cry! I’m sorry, whatever it is that I did!” Tsukki looked panicked, and Tadashi realized that he was indeed crying. 

“No, no I’m sorry it’s just that this is the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.” Tadashi said, hugging Tsukki tightly.

“Happy tears?” He asked.

“Happy tears, I promise. Could you help me put it on?” Tadashi replied from where his face was squished into Tsukki’s chest. 

“Of course.” The taller teen replied, gently looping the pendant onto Tadashi’s chain. 

“There you go, all beautiful now. Even matches with your outfit, very nice by the way.”

“Tsukkiiiii, you’re making me blush.” Tadashi said, trying to hide his face.

“What if I like your blush?”

“Oh my God, Tsukki.”

“Pfffft.” 

\--

Takeda wasn’t crying, nope, not at all. The scene he had just witnessed between Tsukkishima and Yamaguchi definitely hadn’t reduced him to a sniffling mess. Those kids were just so, _so pure. God_ , Takeda was lonely. He should’ve just become a teacher instead of going into sciences like his parents wanted. Maybe he would’ve been less alone. But that didn’t matter anymore because he had these wonderful kids.

“Hey Ittetsu, need a handkerchief?” Ukai said from his side, he swore he hadn’t seen him coming. 

“Oh, no it’s alright I have my own.” Takeda replied, roughly wiping at his face in an attempt to get himself out of his melancholic mood.

“They’re pretty cute aren’t they? They remind me of two of my teammates back in the day.” Ukai said, rubbing a soothing hand on Takeda’s back.

“Yes, they’re quite lovely. I’m so proud of them.” Takeda said, his waterworks beginning anew. 

“Why do I feel that you’re not really crying because of that?”

“I’m not, I’m just being silly.”

“I don’t quite believe that.”

“I was just... thinking of what my life could have been.”

“A dangerous thing to do.”

“Ah, well you know me. I like to live on the wild side.”

“Of course, your middle name is Danger too?”

“Maybe, maybe not. Top government secret and all that.”

“So, mister wild and dangerous are you going to tell me the cause of your melancholy or am I going to have to use my mind-reading powers?” Ukai said, guiding them to a more private corner.

“I was just thinking about what my life could have been if I had followed my heart.”

“And what was your heart telling you to do?”

“Disobey my parents and become a highschool teacher.”

“And how do you think that would have changed your life?”

“I don’t know, I think I would have been happier working with kids all of the time. Maybe I would have adopted some of my own. I guess I feel lonely working somewhere I can’t talk about with people that only care about results and not the human cost to things.”

“I can see how that would weigh on you.”

“Not as much as still being considered a burden by my parents. But that doesn’t matter, at least I got to meet you and the kids even if it will be brief in the grand scheme of my life.”

“Well if my opinion counts for something I think that you are someone than any parent would be immensely proud of and that I am honoured to have met you.” Ukai proudly proclaimed only to have Takeda burst into tears again. Acting quickly he pulled the dark haired man into his arms.

“You’re okay, you’re fine. It’s been a tough couple of weeks and you’ve done a stellar job.” He said, rockin them lightly.

“You are so, _so kind_.” Takeda blubbered. 

“Aw _Glasses_ -”

\--

“SHUT IT DOWN! SHUT IT DOWN RIGHT NOW!” General Ukai said, speed walking into the room and interrupting their evening celebrations. Young Ukai was not in the mood to deal with this, but deal he must.

“Aww, c’mon grandpa we’re just having a good time celebrating the kids’ achievements, let em be.” Ukai said, stepping forward.

“The fuck are you celebrating for?! These kids are nowhere near ready!”

“But sir, Mister Takeda said we did really good and that we reached our goals!” Hinata exclaimed, Kageyama solemnly nodding behind him. 

“Mister Takeda isn’t the commander of this base and I say you’re weak, shrimp.”

“Hey! That’s out of line old man!” Ukai said stepping in front of the kids, Takeda joining him.

“Sir, I’m sure a little party won’t hurt. They’ll be in bed before curfew.” Takeda said, trying to appease the General. 

“They need to be in bed now because they have a big day coming tomorrow!” 

“You better not be insinuating what I think you are.” Ukai growled. 

“You can bet your ass I am. These kids are gonna get shot up with enough Gamma radiation to make them forget their names!” The General replied, hotly.

“What?! Are you fucking kidding me?! You promised you wouldn’t and they’re fine as is.” Ukai said.

“You should know better than to trust me by now, Keishin.”

“Asshole.”

“Takeda! Take the kids to bed, make sure they sleep. And guards, please escort Zoom back to his quarters.” The General said before leaving abruptly.

“Alright children, come with me.” Takeda said, sadly taking Hinata’s hand. Ukai stood by dumbfounded as the others followed. Yamaguchi grabbed Tsukki’s hand and whispering ever so softly “I’m scared.” before Tsukki looked at Ukai with a pained look as he wrapped his arm around Yamaguchi’s shoulder and made their way out. Ukai was escorted out. _So much for a nice evening._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the tsukiyama ship has sailed, everyone!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and so, it gets a little bit better, then a whole lot worse
> 
> the chapters after this one can get a bit more intense and serious, so this a little early warning for that

In the time since first arriving at the base, Tadashi had gotten pretty used to the sleeping pattern. Bed at nine, wake up at six. He and Tsukki could stay up til ten if they wanted to, but tended to be too exhausted to do so. At six, wake up was announced by the beeping of an alarm and the gradual brightening of the lights.  
After everything that happened at the dance, Tadashi had struggled to fall asleep and it felt like he had only just succumbed to sleep when a bright light shone directly into his eyes. His first assumption was that it was Hinata, but the light was a direct beam. As he blinked and let his eyes adjust, he saw that Ukai was standing at his door, flashlight in hand.

“Hurry and get dressed.” Ukai said before slipping away. Still disoriented, Tadashi got up and began pulling on his daywear in the dark, thankful that he could use his telekinesis to pull things toward himself instead of bumbling around in that dark.

Stepping out into the hall, he saw that Tsukki and Hinata were both ready, the six year old not glowing very brightly but still enough to illuminate the hall. Ukai was shining the flashlight into Kageyama’s room, but the preteen didn’t seem to be waking. Their mentor let out an exaggerated sigh before going into the bedroom and picking up Kageyama and slinging him over his shoulder. He then came back out and put him down on his two feet, Kageyama wobbling in place and still blinking sleep out of his eyes.

“Alright, I guess Kageyama is coming in PJs.” Ukai said, looking at all of them, “Follow me.”

“Where are we going?” Hinata asked as they followed Ukai through the base. They were heading toward the hangar, but taking the less used hallways instead of the quickest ones. It reminded Tadashi of the time they’d snuck out for fast food. Were they sneaking out again? Was Ukai breaking them out before they got gamma treatments?

“You’ll see.” Ukai answered cryptically as they headed past the hangars and toward the boiler rooms. He stopped in front of an electrical panel.

“An electrical panel?” Tsukki said, visibly confused and looking a bit peeved.

Ukai pressed on the back of the panel and it suddenly swung open, and he looked back at them looking a bit triumphant.

“A secret electrical panel!” Hinata and Kageyama shouted out simultaneously.

“Shh!” Ukai chided, stepping into the space behind the electrical panel and waving them in. Hinata’s glow illuminated the space behind the panel, revealing what appeared to be an abandoned meeting room. Most of the chairs were broken and shoved off into one corner and the old looking wooden table was covered in a solid inch of dust. On one of the walls, the hero monikers of the previous Zenith team were graffitied in bright colours. Ukai turned to them with a smile. “Right. I’ve never been one for cool speeches, but I guess tonight is an exception.”

“Are we getting cool hero names?!” Hinata asked, bouncing up and down in excitement.

“Yeah, that’s the gist of it.” Ukai said with a fond look on his face, “This room is the only place in the entire base where you’re guaranteed privacy. My team and I used to come here when we needed a moment alone. Before our first mission, we all came and wrote our hero names on the wall. We promised to always be there for each other, no matter what. We promised… to be a family.”

It’s a sweet sentiment, one Tadashi easily relates with when thinking of his own Zenith team, but it’s turned bitter by the knowledge that Ukai is the last one still alive. Tadashi isn’t sure he’d be able to persevere if his whole team just… died. Not from old age or even sickness, but from a fight they couldn’t win. 

“When I lost my first team, I thought that was the end for me. I was ready to leave Zenith for good. Hell, they had to tranq me to bring me back. I saw you guys as some futile experiment doomed to fail by old guys clinging to the past. But mostly I was scared. Of failing again and losing another team, of letting you guys get hurt. But you all surpassed my expectations, and I care for you guys a hell of a lot more than I ever thought I could. So this is me apologizing for how I acted and asking if you guys if… you wanted to be a family too?”

“Yeah!” Hinata cheered, jumping up into their mentor’s arms with no warning, making everyone laugh at his antics.   
“We’re a family!” Tadashi agreed with a smile, and while Tsukki doesn’t show it much, he can see the slightest smile and nod on his boyfriend’s face.

“Alright! Now we get to choose some hero names for you guys.” Ukai said as he tried to set down Hinata, who clung onto him like a baby monkey. “Did you have any ideas?”

“I wanna be Sol!” Hinata declared.

“Sol? Where’d you hear that?” Ukai asked, looking only mildly confused.

“I read it in a book. Some people use that word instead of ‘sun’!” Hinata explained, “And it kinda sounds like ‘soul’ which is super cool!”

“You read it in a book…?”

“I read it in a book.” Tsukki corrected, “He never leaves me alone if I don’t tell him what I’m reading.”

“If Hinata is Sol then I wanna be ‘the King!’” Kageyama said, arms crossed over his chest, “Because I’m the strongest!”

“Nuh-uh! I’m stronger!” Hinata said, “And Sol is way cooler!”

“They’re both good names.” Ukai said, “More creative than my own, in any case.”

“I think Zoom is cool!” Hinata said, still holding on to Ukai.

“Did you two have any ideas?” Ukai asked, his attention turned on the two teens.

“No, not really.” Tadashi said, a bit embarrassed. It seemed like something he should have thought about before, but just getting used to his powers had been a big enough hurdle that considering actually taking up a superhero persona seemed far away enough not to have to worry about it. At least he wouldn’t be the only one - he seriously doubted Tsukki would have spent any time worrying about names either, he really wasn’t the type -

“Tsukki.”

“Oh, isn’t that the nickname Yamaguchi gave you…?”

It took Tadashi’s brain a moment to catch up to what he had just heard and he could feel his face heating up as he tried to come up with a smart response.

“Does that mean we get to call you Tsukki too, now?” Hinata asked, looking quite excited at the prospect. He’d try using the nickname himself every few days and got told off without fail.

“Oh, I get it!” Tadashi said, finally realizing why Tsukki had chosen that as his hero name, “You mean _Tsuki_ like moon, right? Because the moon is sometimes there and sometimes it disappears, like you!”

“No.” Tsukki replied bluntly, “I chose it because it’s the nickname you gave me. But I guess the double meaning is cool too.”

“That’s pretty sappy, especially for you, _Tsuki_ ” Kageyama mocked with a snicker. 

“Shut up. At least my name isn’t super pretentious, _your Highness_.”

“My name is cool!”

“It really shows off your big head. Did it grow because of the weight of your crown?”

Tadashi could see Kageyama’s face getting redder as he tried to come up with a retort. Poor kid was a prodigy with anything sports related, but struggled with using his brain.

“Enough arguing.” Ukai said, “Yamaguchi still needs a name, and I want you guys to head back to bed sooner rather than later.”

“Can’t we stay up tonight? We could go play volleyball!” Hinata said, finally jumping out of Ukai’s arms. 

“No. You guys need sleep to grow. You don’t want to stay tiny forever, right?”

“Ah! I’ll go to bed then! Let’s hurry up finding a name for Yamaguchi!”

“Telekinesis Man!” Kageyama suggested, looking quite pleased with himself.

“That’s a horrible name.” Tsukki said immediately.

“Brain Man!” Hinata said.

“That’s even worse!” Tadashi said this time. 

“Yamaguchi’s powers are kinda like magic powers, right?” Ukai said, “With the control of objects and touch telepathy. There’s definitely something there…”

“What about ‘Merlin’?” Tsukki suggested, “It brings to mind a great magician, and it fits in with the general theme of our names.”

“I like that!” Tadashi declared, a bright smile on his face. “Merlin it is!”

“Good job, kids.” Ukai said proudly, “You’re all officially superheroes.”

The resulting cheers from Hinata and Kageyama were loud and echoed around in the tiny room, with Ukai hurriedly trying to shush them to not draw attention to their hiding spot. Once the two youngest members were sufficiently calmed down, Ukai drew them all into a huddle and stuck his hand in the middle. “Everyone put their hands in and say their name, then let's all sound off together at the end.”

“What’re we gonna say at the end?” Kageyama asked.

“How about ‘family’?” Tadashi suggested and everyone nodded in agreement.

As they all sounded off their names and then all together shouted “Family!” at the end, Tadashi felt a happy flutter in his chest. He’d always been alone - his parents were _not great?_ , and he’d never really had friends before - and for the first time he could remember he felt a real sense of love and belonging. He couldn’t help the large grin plastered on his face.

After that, Ukai herded them all off to bed and bid them goodnight, but Tadashi could tell Hinata and Kageyama weren’t going to bed any time soon. It seemed he had a long night ahead of him.

\---

After a rather pleasant time with his team, Ukai decided to self-sabotage his good mood by actually seeking out his grandfather and the rest of brass instead of Takeda. He would much have preferred seeking out the scientist, but after the little show put on by his grandfather at the dance, Ukai knew it was time he actually got the answers he kept being denied.  
The people he sought weren’t hard to find, all together in the control room that Ukai generally avoided. On a screen that Ukai had never seen turned on before, there was a countdown with only about sixteen hours left. Beside the countdown seemed to be a map and then a picture of Concussion - or rather, Shimada Makoto, Ukai’s supposed to be dead teammate turned enemy.

“Hey, what the fuck?” He shouted, making his presence known as he approached the group. Takeda didn’t seem to be there, but Kiyoko was, looking quite startled to see him. “What is this? Some kind of sick joke?”

“Zoom! What do you think you’re doing here?!” His grandfather shouted.

“Well, I came looking for answers and now I have a few more questions.” Ukai replied, striding up to the gathered group of military men and scientists, arms crossed over his chest. “Care to explain what all this shit is?”

“Alright, Zoom, I guess you’ve earned your answers.” The general said, “You didn’t actually kill Concussion, twenty years ago. We told you that so you wouldn’t do anything stupid. You ran so fast he got booted into an alternate dimension and now there’s a dimensional rift bringing him back here.”

Well, that hit him like a suckerpunch to the gut. So he hadn’t killed Shimada which was… definitely some weight off of his shoulders, even with what the other had done. But the fact that he was coming back was a whole new problem. Ukai had already lost one team to him, and they had had four years of training, two years of field experience and a good few years more on average in age. 

“That’s why you’re training the kids?” He asked dumbly, already knowing the answer.

“Of course. Why the fuck else would we put up with a gang of brats in a military compound?”

Ukai took in a steadying breath. “Okay. So just so we’re on the absolute same page… you decided to create a new Zenith team, to take on Concussion. Concussion, who already wiped one out?”

His grandfather stared at him, looking quite unimpressed.

“And instead of gathering… I don’t know… _adults._ ” Ukai paused again, trying to stop the rising tone of his voice, “You decided to go for kids again, because…?”

“It is easier to earn and keep the loyalty of children.” Kiyoko supplied, “And their bodies get over the negative effects of Gamma treatments more quickly.”

“Right, right. So, you got kids because it’s easier to indoctrinate them on government propaganda.”

“Look, Zoom, I don’t get what’s gotten your panties in a twist. You’ve always known how Zenith operates.” The general said, “Just because you don’t agree with it anymore doesn’t mean you haven’t been in the loop.”

“I thought they were gonna have years of training, like I did!” Okay, he was losing his cool now, “But apparently, we’re just going to chuck the goddamn kindergartener to the wolves now! I’m certain his best friend, the twelve year old with emotional management issues, is going to be able to back him up against a fucking _supervillain!_ ”

“If you’re so worried, why don’t you stop being an ass and use your powers again?” His grandfather goaded, “You don’t lose powers, so whatever the hell is wrong with you is just in your head.”

Ukai stepped forward and shoved the older man, “Don’t you have any fucking compassion?”

Guards were grabbing his arms and pulling him away - and fuck, he hadn’t had to go into the solitary cells at all since he’d arrived and he really didn’t want to go, but the guards outnumbered him four to one currently.

“Keep him in the cells until _after_ the Concussion shit has been cleaned up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the picking out the names scene has always been so wholesome and I had a lot of fun writing it.
> 
> also, shimada is concussion because we all know he secretly has a dark side...


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is probably one of the more serious ones of the bunch, so we thought we should issue a warning just in case.  
> there's a short part in this chapter where there's some violence against children and pretty creepy behaviour from guards toward the kids so if you think that may be triggering for you, we've marked that part off with some asterisks (****) so you can skip it!
> 
> hope you all enjoy!

They hadn’t gone to bed until sometime around three AM after their small excursion with Ukai. Tadashi knew he shouldn’t have expected Hinata and Kageyama to just fall asleep after the excitement, but he really had hoped for better.  
All that to say that being awoken at around four-thirty AM was not a welcome event. The lights had come on rather abruptly and rather than an alarm, people began pounding on their doors and shouting at them to get up. Tadashi startled, jumping out of bed quickly. One of the big security guards was outside, watching him impatiently. He opened the door apprehensively, “What’s going on?” He asked, not stepping out of his room. The guard was blocking his view of the hall but he could hear the confused and sleepy voices of his teammates asking the same thing.

The guard just scowled and Tadashi shrank away from him.

“I’m afraid we’re taking you to get Gamma radiation treatments.”

Takeda’s voice was wavering and small sounding, and Tadashi felt his heart drop. They’d known, last night, what the higher ups were planning - the General had shouted into their faces about the treatments - but Ukai and Takeda had always been so staunchly on their side, so against the treatments that this was a whole new level of _wrong._

“No! I’m not going!” Hinata shouted, with Kageyama immediately following, “Yeah! Fuck off!”

“Hinata, Kageyama, we don’t have a choice in this.” Takeda said softly, “Just do as we say.”

“No!” The two shouted back petulantly, and the increase in brightness alerted Tadashi to Hinata about to lose control and flashbang so he quickly averted his eyes. The guards shouted in shock and anger, but they were wearing dark sunglasses and recovered quickly. 

****

“Hinata! Don-” Takeda began reprimanding, but was cut short by the sound of a hand hitting a face and the _thump_ of Hinata’s small body hitting the ground. The kid began crying loudly and Tadashi stepped forward.

“Let me go to him.” He told the guard, trying to sound more confident than he felt. The guard only stared. “He’s scared and he’s hurt. If you want us to get going, someone has to calm him down.” If - If this had happened just the day before, Tadashi would have trusted their teacher to have gone to Hinata’s rescue, but now he couldn’t be sure. 

“You get changed first.” The guard spoke. Okay. So that wasn’t a total refusal, Tadashi quickly went to shut his door to get privacy - the glass would turn dark when it locked - but the guard’s foot stopped it from shutting.

“Your foot’s in the way.” He said, stuttering a bit. The guard didn’t budge, so Tadashi pushed on the door again, hoping the pressure would make the other man move. Hinata was still crying and Kageyama was getting more worked up and creative with his swearing. “If you want me to get changed, you’re going to have to move your foot.”

“I don’t trust you not to do anything.” The guard said, “Get changed now.”

“Please move your foot.” Tadashi said again, stress building as the guard stared him down. 

“No.”

“Let him close his door.” Takeda said, coming up behind the guard, “It'll only take him a minute.”

“I don’t trust these superpowered freaks not to do anything if I take my eyes off of them. Door stays open.”

Tadashi could feel the mounting hostility in the air and he really didn’t want to be the next one getting hit. The guard was visibly getting impatient and annoyed.

“Okay, okay. I’ll get changed.” He said, stepping away from the door. He wanted to hurry up and get over with it so he could go check up on the others, but he also didn’t want to get changed in front of the guard. He was moving slower and more hesitantly than he thought he should.  
As he pulled a clean shirt and jumpsuit out of his small dresser, he tried to rationalize with himself. Ultimately, it was just like changing in the school locker room after gym, or in the restrooms after training. It was no big deal. He pulled his sleep shirt off and immediately realized that, yeah, it was a big deal. He could feel the guard’s eyes on him constantly, watching like a hawk to make sure he didn’t do anything and hurried to pull his shirt on as quickly as possible. His ears were ringing loudly. It was nothing like the locker rooms, because even when he had been surrounded by bullies, he’d been an equal. They were all teen boys, changing after a workout, but now he felt more like some sort of freak show on display. It was humiliating. He rushed to change the rest of his outfit before turning back to the guard again.

*******  
The guard stepped away and let him out without a word. Tsukki was already out and waiting, a guard hovering dangerously close to him - no doubt to be able to grab him at the first sign of disappearing. Kageyama had also come out and wasn’t quite crying, but had an angry red mark on his cheek. He’d been hit? Tadashi had been so caught up in his own dilemma he hadn’t even heard that happening, and he immediately felt bad about it.  
He was let into Hinata’s room in silence, the tiny redhead curled up in the far corner, hiding his face. He went to kneel next to him.

“Are you okay?” Tadashi asked carefully, not wanting to set off Hinata’s powers again by startling him. “How hurt are you?”

“He’s _fine._ ” One of the guards scoffed.

“He’s _six._ ” Tadashi bit back angrily.

“You can’t reason with idiots who get their rocks off tormenting children,” Tsukki said, from the outside, “Just take care of Hinata.”

Tadashi pulled some clothing out for Hinata. “You have to get dressed now, or else they’re going to get more angry.”

“I don’ wanna.”

“C’mon, Hinata.” Tadashi said, wary of the guards all but breathing down their necks. “Kageyama and Tsukki are already ready.”

“I don’t want gamma radiation. It’s gonna hurt even worse.”

“Ah, you don’t know that.” Tadashi said, trying to be encouraging, “It’ll be over before you know it, and then you’ll be stronger than ever! You’ll go total supernova! No one will be able to push you around anymore, not even Kageyama.” _Or those asshole guards._

Hinata finally shifted a bit and uncurled from himself, and Tadashi finally saw Hinata’s face, a matching red mark to Kageyama taking up a larger portion of his face. His tears had gone dry but his eyes were still all red and the tracks weren’t completely dried yet. 

“Hurry up.” A guard shouted, startling both of them. Tadashi quickly stood, giving a hand up to Hinata.

Most mornings, Hinata was fine to dress himself (and very adamant about not being babied) and generally had the time to fix mistakes like inside out shirts or backwards pants, but Tadashi knew they didn’t have the time for that. Especially with how little sleep and how much stress they were running on - mistakes were probably more likely than not. He helped Hinata get dressed as speedily as possible, then used some kleenex to wipe his face clean.

It seemed that they were ready just in time, because the guards looked especially impatient, one of them constantly checking and rechecking his watch as they headed out. The familiar path toward the gamma radiation room felt much more somber and ominous than usual. As they were escorted there, scientists and military personnel alike scurried about in a panic, some stopping to watch them pass - some with pity, others with anticipation and excitement. Tadashi knew that he could probably knock out all four guards and Takeda with a good enough push using his powers, but there were too many people around and he would take out his teammates at the same time, so he was stuck.  
As they came up to a more empty section of hallway, Takeda spoke up suddenly, “You know, I really wanted to say I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, but then I saw what _monsters_ you were…”  
Takeda’s words were like ants under Tadashi’s skin, like a punch to the gut and a slap in the face. Even this morning, being awoken and told they were going to get gamma, Tadashi had trusted Takeda, respected and cared for him even. He’d been ready to understand that Takeda had a job and probably a lot on the line if he didn’t follow orders, and maybe even _forgive_ the man. Takeda was one of the very few adults Tadashi had known in his life that had accepted and even encouraged his powers, and he’d seem to really care. But apparently not. What had happened? What had changed? What had they done to cause this change in personality? His mind raced as he tried to find answers, trying to remember any missteps. His thoughts were interrupted by the guard at his side suddenly falling to the ground, face contorted in pure fear. The other three had dropped as well and now were weeping on the ground, while a few passing personnel seemed to have become extremely confused and disoriented.

“What the-?”

“We don’t have a ton of time until they recover, we have to hurry!” Takeda said, seeming to have made a complete 180 in mood in the past three seconds.

“What happened? Why are they freaking out?” Kageyama asked, looking even more confused than Tadashi.

“He’s got powers, idiot.” Tsukki said, “Isn’t it obvious?”

Oh. _Oh._ Now that Tsukki had pointed it out, Tadashi felt a bit dumb for not immediately realizing it. Did that mean Takeda had been talking to the guards and not them? What a relief…

“I’ll be more than happy to explain, but we have to go break out Ukai and then get out of here before any of that!” Takeda said, “He’s in the solitary confinement cells, this way.”

Tsukki had spent a lot of time in the solitary confinement cells, the direct result of all his disappearing stunts, so Tadashi had a vague idea of what they were like. Apparently, they weren’t super guarded, so it seemed a bit foolish to imprison Ukai there. 

There were thankfully, fewer people on the way toward the cells and those who were in the halls were easy to get rid of. They dropped like flies when Takeda looked at them, and Tadashi was getting more and more curious about his teacher’s power. As they arrived at the solitary cells, Tadashi saw that Takeda was getting worn out by using his powers so much.

“I’ll handle the next ones.” Tadashi said, when the two guards came into view. He hadn’t used his powers on others very often - and even then, it was usually to help Hinata get down from places he had jumped up to with no way down except falling - so he wasn't exactly sure how much power to use or what exactly to do.

HIs first instinct was just to pick them up and launch them to the ceiling. He saw them shoot up much quicker than anticipated and hit the ceiling quite painfully, then let his hold on them go in shock, watching them come down just as quickly. They hit the floor and didn’t move.

“Did I just kill them? Holy shit!” Tadashi exclaimed.

“They aren’t dead, just knocked out.” Takeda reassured quickly, heading into the central area of the cells.

“Hey! You aren’t allowed to be here!” The guard at the central command shouted, standing up, hand reaching for the phone. Before he could pick it up though, he fell backwards onto the ground with a shout of confusion, then was knocked down again as he tried to sit up, and was out cold. Tsukki materialized above the guard with a sly smile.

“You’d think he would have learned to anticipate me by now.” Tsukki said with a scoff, “Guess some people aren’t good for anything other than grunt work.”

“How are we supposed to know what cell he’s in?” Kageyama asked, looking around the room. There’s about a dozen cells, each identical.

“Guess we’ll have to try them all.” Tadashi said, feeling a bit stressed.

“But there’s no way we’ll have time!” 

Kageyama is probably right. Even if the guard didn’t call for help, they had left a trail of destruction in the wake and it wasn’t hard to guess where they were headed and why.

“He’s in cell six.” Tsukki spoke up, leaned over the computer. Ah. There were cameras showing the interior of each room. Of course.

“Mr. Ukai! We’re here to get you!” Hinata shouted to the door.

“Hinata?” Ukai’s voice came from the other side, sounding confused as all hell. “Who’s ‘we’? Who are you with?”

“Everyone!” Hinata cheerily replies, and his glow suddenly intensifies. “I’m gonna let you out now, okay?”

“Wait, Hinata!” Takeda shouted, but it was too late. The six year old kicked the door to the cell and sent it flying back. Judging from the surprised shout from Ukai, the door was not the only thing knocked back.

“Wah! I’m sorry!” Hinata said as he realized what he did, “I didn’t mean to!”

“Idiot!” Kageyama said, “You almost killed Mr. Ukai!”

“I’m fine.” Ukai replied, still under the heavy door, “Just a bit trapped. Could anyone lend me a hand?”

“Ah, right!” Tadashi said, using his power to lift the door up and set it aside. Ukai stood, dusting himself off. He seemed okay, if a little roughed up by being hit by a door kicked by Hinata. 

“How’d you guys get away, I thought for sure there’d be a million guards-” Ukai suddenly cut himself off, staring at Kageyama then at Hinata, “Hey, who the fuck hit you?”

“Some of the guards were being a bit rough.” Tadashi explained quickly, “But Mr. Takeda took care of them!”

“Huh? You can fight?” Ukai asked.

“He has powers!” Hinata said, “He just made the guards go down like wahhhh! They looked really scared!”

“I’m an empath.” Takeda explained. Huh. That made sense - the guards had looked scared out of their wits for no reason so other than maybe some illusion based power, there weren’t many other explanations. “I can feel what others feel and manipulate that as well. I made the guards pass out from fear.”

Ukai had the look on his face - the look of his brain trying to catch up to what he heard. Usually, the look only came out when one of them said something monumentally stupid or surprisingly clever.

“Keishin, I know this is pretty intense but we need to get out of here sooner rather than later.” Takeda said, “I’ll explain everything once we’re safe.”

“Right.” Ukai said, face clearing. “What’s our escape plan?”

“Noya’s waiting for us at the UFO.” Takeda said, Hinata and Kageyama cheering at the mention of the little robot and the UFO. “We just have to get there before anyone thinks to check there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hinata is the type of guy to yell "timber!" after the tree has fallen and hit somebody :P


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _dumps this here and runs_
> 
> enjoy, everyone! (￣▽￣)ノ

They had made it into the spaceship by the skin of their teeth and now as they were trying to leave the hangar as it was closing, Ukai finally felt like he could breathe. If only the spaceship could go quicker.

“Yamaguchi, didn’t you say there was something weird about the spaceship last time?”

“Um, yes, maybe.” The boy replied.

“Well then, see if you can’t make it unweird. We need to get the fuck out of here.”

“On it!” Yamaguchi said, running to the weird red flashing cube puzzle thing beside the helm with Tsukishima following close behind. He touched the blocks feeling for something with his touchy feely powers of emotional deduction.

“It’s all wrong, this isn’t how it was meant to be.” He said, before levitating the blocks and rearranging them to fit back into their holder. They were no longer flashing red but rather blue and the ship got a sudden boost of power.

“Now, that is what I’m talking about kiddo!” Ukai said, punching it to the impact zone where Shimada would soon appear. 

“We need a game plan before we land, but what we really need is more time so focus on a distraction plan!” Ukai said, before focusing on driving the ship.

“You got it coach!” He heard Hinata say. Coach? That was a first.

\--

Tsukki wasn’t a worrier by nature but seeing the way Tadashi was treated back at the dorms by the guards had alarm bells going off in his mind. Standing there powerless while Tadashi was humiliated was the most infuriating moment of Tsukki’s relatively bland life. The rational part of Tsukki’s brain was screaming at him to stay in his lane and not escalate the situation but his heart (which had grown a lot since meeting Tadashi) was screaming even louder at him to destroy those guards. In the end the rational side won out because he realized that no matter how much training he had he couldn’t take out four heavily armed guards by himself. But now, it was time for his heart to take to the stage. 

“How are you feeling?” He asked, gently putting an arm around Tadashi’s shoulder.

“Oh me? I’m fine, I’m glad we got the spaceship working.” Tadashi said, faking a smile.

“You know what I’m talking about, it’s okay if you aren’t ready to talk but I’m here okay?” Tsukki said bringing Tadashi in closer. 

The teen didn’t answer but buried himself into Tsukki’s chest so Tsukki held him tight and rubbed his back. At first he didn’t notice but Tadashi began shaking and silently crying so Tsukki sat them down with Tadashi in his lap and began humming songs silently. Whilst he might’ve been humming soothing songs, Tsukki was internally seething. When a particularly harsh sobbed hit Tadashi, Tsukki vowed to make the guards pay. 

\--

Their plan was scarily simple which was worrying but saving the world often meant not having much time to plan. The plan was: 1. Have Ukai distract Concussion for as long as possible. 2. Bring in Noya when Concussion grew tired of Ukai. 3. Pray the army had shown up by then. 4a. The army comes on time and Concussion is apprehended, everyone goes home happy. 4b. The army doesn’t come or is late and the kids and Takeda have to come back up Ukai, not ideal. Ukai kept running the plan over and over in his head, praying to every deity he knew for the kids to be safe. He landed the ship safely a few yards from Concussion’s impact zone, who thankfully hadn’t arrived yet. Ukai gestured for everyone to huddle up.

“Alright kids, this is not going to be an easy mission considering the fact that it’s your first one and it’s up against a very powerful enemy. But, I believe in us. That being said, your safety is mine and Takeda’s priority so if things go south you get back on this ship and get as far as you can, okay?” Ukai said, taking the time to look every kid in the eyes.

“But what about you?” Kageyama asked in a rare show of concern.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll figure something out. Just promise me you’ll be safe.”

“I’ll keep them safe, you have my word.” Tsukishima said, grabbing a red-eyed Yamaguchi’s hand.

“I knew I’d make a leader out of you somehow!” Ukai joked, pulling a weak laugh out of the kids. 

“Okay, family on three!” Ukai said, putting his hand in the middle of their huddle. “One! Two! Three! Family!” They cheered, Tsukishima even daring to join in. Ukai got onto the elevator that would take him down to Concussion.

“Be good and listen to Tsukki and Takeda.” He said, just before he caught an armful of Takeda and a small timid kiss on his lips. “Good luck.” He whispered, still as red as tomato.

“Ew! Mom and Dad are kissing!.” Hinata screeched while Kageyama dry heaved.

“My eyes!” Tsukki exclaimed, while Yamaguchi was full on giggling.

“That’s enough out of you brats!” Ukai said, descending to wait could only be described as his imminent doom. 

\--

The weird red vortex that was positioned where Concussion’s supposed impact zone should be was growing more and more agitated as Ukai drew closer. ‘I guess it’s close to curtain time’ Ukai mused. The vortex suddenly grew in size and became brighter before imploding on itself and ejecting a very beat up and still young Concussion. The man in question stood up quickly and put up his arms as if to send off a shockwave. He still had the glowing red eyes the Gamma had given him.

“Woah, woah. Calm down, it’s me Ukai. I’m not here to fight you buddy.” Ukai said, lifting his hands in a placating gesture.

“That’s a fucking lie if I’ve ever heard one.” Concussion yelled, sending off a shockwave directly at Ukai who was powerless to move in time. Ukai was knocked back flat on his ass several feet back. Groaning he got up.

“I see your shock waves are as strong as ever.” He groused.

“Did you lose your powers, old man?” Concussion asked, sending off another shock. 

“Could you quit doing that? I’m trying to have a civil conversation with you.” Ukai huffed out, dusting off his pants. 

“You abandoned civility the day you gave up on me” A quick succession of shockwaves followed. Concussion was getting increasingly volatile, which meant Ukai had to act fast. 

“Look, I know what happened was horribly unjust and never should have taken place. You need help and a friend and I’m sorry that we couldn’t be that for you because we were too fucked up and brainwashed to realize you needed help.” Ukai said, struggling to get up from the ground.

“Don’t fucking lie! You never cared, you loved all the others except me! Me! The one who stood by you from the start!” Concussion was seething with rage. ‘So much for de-escalation’ Ukai thought.

“You were a brother to me Shimada, I never meant to hurt you. We can make this work, like back in the old days. I can get you the help you need and we can start fresh.” Ukai tried to reason. Concussion seemed to be having none of it and was charging up for another shockwave.

“Fuck- wait is that Noya?” The said robot beeped in recognition. “You brought out the fucking robot? You must be really desperate to distract me, or did you think I didn’t have your little plan all figured out?” He said, coming to crouch besides Ukai.

“I just thought we could get the gang back together.”

“The gang’s dead.”

“Yeah, and who killed them? Because I remember pushing myself so hard to try and save them that I lost my powers? Or are we not going to mention that?” Ukai ground out. 

“Fuck you.” Concussion said, not sending a shockwave at Ukai but rather at Noya. Ukai thankfully saw it coming and tripped up Concussion, sending the shockwave off by a few meters. Noya was wildly beeping and waving his little robot arms, if Ukai were a robot translator (like Yamaguchi, apparently) he would guess that Noya was pissed off. 

“You motherfucker!” Concussion screamed, charging up to send a wave directly at Ukai’s prone form on the ground.

“Leave him alone you big meanie!” Hinata screeched from off in the near distance. ‘Fuck’ Ukai thought, but thankfully Concussion was distracted enough by Hinata for Ukai to stand up.

“The fuck is this, are you that desperate that you’re sending in the kindergarteners?” 

“Hinata! Get out of here!”

“Pathetic.” Was the only warning Concussion gave before sending a blast straight for Hinata.

\--

In the blink of an eye Ukai had somehow reached Hinata and gotten him to safety. ‘What the fuck? This can’t be possible.’ Ukai thought as he set Hinata down behind a boulder.

“C’mon kid, wake up.” He said gently, jostling him. “C’mon, c’mon.” And then a thought popped through his mind. “C’mon Sol, come back to me.” And Hinata’s intense little eyes opened. Ukai’s heart just about completely stopped. ‘Thank fuck for small miracles!’

“Zoom! You saved me!” Hinata said, hugging him tight enough to bruise.

“I did, I think I got my powers back.” Ukai said in disbelief.

“Yeah! You ran so fast I barely even saw you!”

“HIIIINAAATA!!!!” Kageyama yelled, running towards them with the others following. Hinata sat up straighter and welcomed a very agitated Kageyama into his arms.

“You idiot! Never do that again or I’m going to kill you!” He said, squeezing the air out of Hinata.

“I’m sorry but Concussion was going to hurt Zoom.” Hinata tried to apologize.

“Is no one going to talk about Ukai’s powers having magically reappeared?” Tsukki said, from somewhere. ‘That kid goes invisible at the most inopportune moments’ Ukai thought.

“Yeah, about that. I need you guys to keep Concussion distracted for like five minutes. I’m going to get my suit at the base so I can hopefully re-do a vortex and send him back to where he was.” Ukai said getting up.

“That’s nice but do you have a plan for how we’re meant to distract him?” Tsukki said reappearing besides Tadashi.

“Well he seems to be pissed off at the army lookout right now.” Ukai said, peering around the boulder to where he could see Concussion setting off shockwaves at the lookout cliff. They seemed to be preparing to launch something at him, but Ukai had big doubts on the odds of that working out in their favour.

“That’s not going to last forever though.” Takeda pointed out.

“Yeah, you guys know how to play ball?” Ukai asked.

“Volleyball?” Kageyama questioned. 

“Uh, no. Like baseball?” 

“Ew.”

“Look, distract him until I get back and then Hinata or Kageyama can go pick up that service tower and use it as a bat and then use Concussion as your ball okay? Keep him in play until I can get a vortex formed.” Ukai explained, pointing to the service tower and the impact zone where he would create a vortex.

“We’ll do our best!” Tadashi said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back in the blink of an eye.” Ukai said before setting off into the desert.

\--

Ukai, while not a prideful man, had a bit of a hard time admitting to himself that he was a little bit out of practice and shape with concern to his powers. Gone were the days of shredded muscles and endless stamina, much to his chagrin. But, all things considered he was still ‘in shape’ and conventionally attractive, not that it did much for him as he ran across a barren desert at speeds that could just about break the sound barrier (he used to be able to do that, but life happened). Nonetheless he gave it his all, even when he burned through his shoes and lost a significant portion of his pants. This was precisely why he needed a specialized suit, else he seriously injure his body. Thankfully he could see the compound in the distance, and in the time it took for him to think it he was in front of his old locker furiously ripping his clothes off. He heard a door opening and a woman’s scream before he quickly suited up and left. ‘It seems my butt is as provocative as ever’ He mused on his way through the desert.

\--

Keeping Concussion distracted was easier said than done in Tsukishima’s superior opinion. Hinata and Kageyama had the bright idea to run out and screech like banshees to catch his attention and then promptly running away to go and get the service tower. Takeda was also useless, as he was trying to save Noya from falling off a cliff. The goons in the army lookout had been unsuccessful in their attempt to capture Concussion with a net prior to the troublesome brats’ daring dash. This left Tsukki and Tadashi standing there like two idiots in the face of a homicidal maniac.

Tsukki’s first instinct was to turn invisible and run (which would leave Tadashi behind, which was a big no-no) but then his second instinct was to use the element of surprise to club Concussion in the face to give Tadashi time to get it together. So he went with the second instinct. Tapping Concussion’s shoulder from behind before delivering the most satisfying punch ever. Concussion doubled over clutching his bleeding nose.

“Ah fuck, you’re gonna get it beanpole!” He growled out.

“I don’t think so!” Yamaguchi quipped, sending a barrage of rocks towards the man, somehow avoiding Tsukki. Concussion tried to deflect the rocks with mini shockwaves but there were too many. Seeing an opportunity Tsukki grabbed Concussion and suplexed him into the ground effectively knocking him out. 

“God does that feel good!” Tsukki said as Concussion lay groaning on the ground.

“It looked so cool Tsukki! It was like he suplexed himself!” Tadashi cheered, jumping into Tsukki’s arms. But, Tsukki was still invisible.

“Uh, Tadashi?”

“Yes?”

“Can you see me right now?”

“No? I guess I can sense you? Is that weird for you?” He answered, growing nervous.

“It’s not weird, I’m just very surprised. You’re probably the only person who can do that. Good thing we’re on the same team.” Tsukki said, booping Tadashi’s freckled nose. ‘God I love him’ Tsukki thought, not for the first time but this was the first time he accepted it as truth. They’d only known each other for so little time but somehow it felt like forever. 

“Ugh, will you two lovebirds shut the fuck up.” Concussion ground out, trying to get up. At the same time Ukai appeared.

“Ready to play ball, kiddos?” He said, before running off to start forming the vortex that would ship Concussion to wherever the fuck he came from. The two brats seemed to be ready with their two halves of the service tower. 

“Ugh, when you say it like that not really.” Tsukki said just before gently putting Tadashi down to go pick up Concussion so he could launch him towards the boys with Tadashi’s help of course. All that grueling training had its purpose after all.

“What the fuck!? Put me down you palid giant!” Concussion screeched trying to get out of Tsukki’s grip.

“Tadashi, did he say he wanted to be put down?” Tsukki asked in an overtly annoying voice.

“You know what I think he did.” Tadashi answered, with a truly beautiful shit-eating grin on his face.

“Then, as good law-abiding citizens we must honour his request.” Tsukki said launching Concussion as high as he could, Tadashi sending him straight for Hinata. 

“Ah, another job well-done Tsukki!” Yamaguchi giggled. Watching Hinata and Kageyama hit Concussion back and forth between them. The poor man was hopelessly trying to hit them with shockwaves but couldn’t seem to right himself.

\--

As Ukai sped around the infamous impact zone where he had lost his family so many years ago the only thought that raced through his mind was how much he wished things could have been different. By doing things this way they were only going to solve the problem of having a homicidal maniac on a rampage. This won’t bring back his dead teammates nor will it ever give an explanation for their deaths to their families nor will it explain why Makoto Shimada is still considered missing in action. It won’t get any of them the help they desperately need, nor will it fix the damages wrought on their bodies by the gamma. Ukai never had children not only because he was gay but because he couldn’t have fathered them if he tried, like his teammates had they lived long enough. 

After all this Concussion business was said and done, Ukai promised to himself he would do whatever it took so the kids would never experience Gamma. Maybe they could permanently steal the UFO and go live in like Siberia or the Gobi Desert and figure something out food wise. God, what was he thinking, the only way to escape Zenith was to die or disappear in a space vortex to another dimension (and the space vortex was apparently not a guarantee anymore). Speaking of space vortexes, the one he was creating was increasing in size by the second. It was time for Concussion to leave for good, hopefully.

“Kids! It’s time.” Ukai yelled out. 

“You got it coach!” Hinata yelled, batting Concussion straight into the vortex (with an accompanying blast of light). Concussion landed with a crunch before getting up and sending blast after blast at Ukai, but he was too fast.

\--

The vortex that Keishin was creating was close to reaching the sky but with each of Concussion’s blasts it was slowed down a little bit. Takeda was scared to death each time a red blast appeared in the bright green of the vortex. This whole situation didn’t sit right with him; just banishing Concussion again wouldn’t solve the problem and Keishin might not be there next time to make a portal. He was sure there was a way to do this without Concussion suffering if only he had been aware beforehand. 

Well… now that he thought about it, maybe there was a way. It went against everything he stood for, but maybe the good outweighed the bad. No matter, there was little time to act and whatever the result of his ‘idea’ couldn’t be worse than banishing Concussion. Making his mind up he ran up as close as he could to the vortex, shielding his face from the debris flying around.

“Keishin!” He yelled as loud as he could.

“Keishin!!” He yelled even louder, desperate.

“Glasses?!”

“I know how to save Concussion!”

“How?”

“When the vortex is about to close, reverse to send it back on itself and I’ll use my powers on Concussion!” He screamed as quickly and as loud as he could.

“Are you sure?” Ukai screamed back.

“Yes, we don’t have a choice!” 

“Alright.” Ukai said, seemingly going even faster now knowing there was a way for him to save his teammate. The vortex grew and Takeda knew it was time. 

He focused all of his energy on pinpointing Concussion’s ‘soul’ (as he referred to peoples’ emotional wells). He almost lost his grasp on it when he felt the sudden overwhelming rush of anger, pain, and crippling terror but Takeda knew he had to persist. The vortex collapsed on itself and Takeda sent waves of love, acceptance, and calm towards Concussion. The impact of the vortex collapsing sent Takeda flying backwards, all he felt was his body hitting something before his vision went dark.

\--

Tsukishima didn’t even have time to react to the vortex collapsing or Takeda being launched straight into a boulder before Tadashi was running towards their teacher. Tsukki figured that Tadashi could handle Ukai while he corralled the kids and Noya to safety. To be on the safer side he went invisible so he could cross across the impact zone and get to the kids quicker. He set off in a sprint but slowed down around the impact zone to make less noise. He couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between Ukai and Concussion, and from the way the two were clutching at each other it seemed Takeda’s plan had worked.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. God what have I done. I… I killed our family, Ukai!” Concussion was incoherently babbling. Ukai was holding him and preventing him from hurting himself.

“It’s okay, you’re alright. It wasn’t you, I forgive you. You’re alright, you’re safe now.” Ukai kept repeating.

“It’s not okay! I don’t deserve to-” “You stop that right now, it wasn’t you and if there’s anyone to blame it’s the General.” Ukai said firmly, holding Concussion’s shoulders and looking straight into his eyes.

“Your eyes are brown again… the red’s gone.” Ukai said wonder in his voice.

Tsukki felt he had heard enough and that it was better to leave them with some privacy. He picked up his pace again and headed for the brats who were once again arguing as they tried to move Noya along in the desert sand. He spared a glance at Tadashi and Takeda and found that Takeda seemed to be conscious, ‘thank God for small mercies’ he thought.

“Idiot! I told you we shoulda just picked him up.” Kageyama yelled.

“But he’s awkward to carry.” Hinata whined back. Just hearing their voices gave Tsukki the feeling of an impending headache. He appeared in front of them.

“Will you two shut up?” He said.

“Ahhhhh!” Hinata screamed, jumping six feet into the air.

“I said shut up, now’s not the time for arguing. Kageyama you can carry Noya by yourself and you know it. We need to get to Takeda, he’s injured.” He said, beginning to walk away.

“No fair!” Kageyama said indignantly.

“I don’t care, we have bigger things to worry about.” Tsukki replied. 

\--

Takeda may have been conscious but he wasn’t in a good place, he was pale and shaking like a leaf. He had a head wound that Tadashi was desperately trying to treat but blood kept trickling down, staining his pristine white uniform. Hinata immediately began crying upon seeing him, seeking an awkward Kageyama out for comfort while Tsukki knelt down to help Tadashi.

“You looked pretty badass out there, teach.” Tsukki said, trying to lighten the mood (God, what was he becoming. He had gone soft and he knew it.).

“Ha, you know me badass extraordinaire!” Takeda replied with a weak laugh and smile. Tsukki looked to Tadashi over Takeda’s head and found a grim expression. He took a look at the wound and it was deep. Tsukki guessed there might be a hairline fracture and a definite need for heavy-duty stitches. He mouthed “UFO” to Tadashi because they needed to get their teacher to a hospital as fast as possible. Tadashi nodded back.

“Alright Takeda, Tadashi is going to gently levitate you back to the ship and we’re going to go to the hospital and get you all checked out. Sound okay?” Tsukki said, trying to look his teacher in the eyes but the man’s eyes had trouble focusing. All he received was a weak nod in return.

“Okay.” He said, nodding to Tadashi before turning to the kids. “Hinata, Kageyama, you need to get Noya back on the ship as fast as you can make a space for Takeda. Okay?” 

“Okay…” Hinata said, still sniffling beside a stoic Kageyama, but the kids got to work. Tadashi stepped back from Takeda but the cloth he was holding to the wound stayed in place. Slowly he began levitating Takeda. 

“I’m going to go tell Ukai we’re going to the hospital.” Tsukki said, going invisible and heading for the two men. 

\--

The two men seemed to have calmed down and were now quietly talking in hushed tones. Tsukki still didn’t feel comfortable with being visible around Concussion so he kept his form and moved towards them making sure to make noise. Ukai picked up on his walking and turned in the general direction Tsukki was coming from.

“Tsukishima?” He asked.

“We’re going to the hospital, Takeda’s hurt pretty bad and the army guys are starting to act up again.” He replied.

“Oh my God, I didn’t even think of how the blast would’ve hit him.” Ukai said, getting up at an abnormal speed. 

“He’ll be fine, he’s mostly conscious for now and Tadashi’s taking care of him.” Tsukki said, blocking Ukai’s path.

“Why are you stopping me? Takeda needs help.” Ukai said, trying to get around an invisible Tsukki.

“Right now what he needs, and what we all need frankly, is for you to make sure Concussion over there doesn’t blow his top and revert to his homicidal tendencies.” Ukai looked ready to argue but Tsukki cut him off, “We also need someone to try and rectify things with your grandfather and the army.” Ukai deflated before nodding.

“Alright, I’ll go figure something out with my grandfather and you can take Shimada with you and then we can all meet up together later.” He said.

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Concussion’s not coming anywhere near the others until I trust him not to hurt them, physically or otherwise.” Tsukki said, tone firm. He wasn’t going to budge on this no matter what Ukai said or did. 

“He’s fine, you can trust him I promise you.” Ukai said, pleading. 

“No I can’t, I’m doing what needs to be done to protect my family.” Tsukki said, before walking away. “We’ll keep you updated on Takeda and the kids.”

“Alright.” Ukai said, resigned.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, with this frankly very large chapter, we reach the end of this fic.
> 
> We wanted to thank everyone who left kudos, bookmarks and comments on this fic! When we saw we got new kudos we would always get all happy about it and all of you're super nice and amazing comments would make our days and encourage us to keep writing more and keep having fun! We love y'all!! <3
> 
> My sister (the co-author of this fic!) is really happy about all the positive support for it and it has really encouraged her to get more into fanfic writing instead of always doing boring academic stuff, so a huge thanks to everyone from her!
> 
> I'm of course, also overjoyed of all the support! I've been writing fic, posting it and deleting it periodically for years now and just recently with the success of this fic (and my other 2) have I started actually leaving things up and being motivated to finish, and it's in no small part due to the support and kindness of all the people who read my/our works
> 
> So thank you again everyone!!

Even with Tsukishima’s hesitation, Ukai trusted Shimada to not run off or go back to being crazy if he was left alone. In any case, he felt that Shimada might need a few minutes to himself. So, he left him there and ran up to the temporary outpost the military had set up.  
All of the soldiers still seemed to be panicking and running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

“Zoom! What the fuck do you think you’re doing, leaving Concussion down there alone?” His grandfather came out of the tent, closely followed by Kiyoko.

“Don’t worry, he’s fine now.” Ukai said placatingly, despite knowing full well the odds of that working were close to none.

“Fine? He’s a cold-blooded killer!” The old man said, “Just because he’s stopped now, doesn’t mean he won’t attack as soon as our backs are turned! You got lucky with whatever the hell Takeda did, but you need to get back down there and finish the job.”

Finish the job.

As far as orders from his grandfather go, it’s nothing new. As a kid, first figuring out his powers and excitedly showing them off to his grandfather for the first time he recalled being told to run until he was exhausted to ‘finish the job’. Then, as a dumb preteen too naive to know any better, being told to ‘finish the job’ when first faced with a villain brought down to their knees. Twenty years ago, during the first fight with Concussion having it shouted into his ear through his earpiece before banishing his teammate to who knows where. He’d always done it - he didn’t like leaving stuff unfinished, regardless of whether or not he was told to finish it or not.

“No.” He said, “I’m not killing an innocent man.”

“Innocent?” The general laughed, “ _Innocent?_ Have you lost your goddamn mind? Did you just forget who killed the entirety of your old team?”

“No, I did not forget.” Ukai countered, crossing his arms in anger. “For a _long_ time though, I was wrong about who to blame.”

“What are you going on about? You saw him kill them!”

“I'm not denying what he did, I’m finally seeing what really happened. I blamed the bullet without looking at who fired the gun.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Shimada wasn’t… he didn’t….” Ukai paused for a brief moment collecting his thoughts, “It’s your fucking fault, okay? You’re the reason the first Zenith team died.”

His grandfather stared at him in shock, Kiyoko looking just as confused if a bit pensive at his words.

“You never saw us as kids.” Ukai continued. “Not even me. You just saw tools, weapons that you could use to fight your battles for you. You pumped us so full of gamma radiation we couldn’t tell right from wrong anymore and pointed in the direction of whatever you wanted us to destroy.”

The old man opened his mouth, looking intent on saying something else but Ukai continued. “I’m not finished talking. You wouldn’t know, or even care, but gamma radiation hurts like a bitch and it fucks you up for days after a treatment. We got that shit on a monthly basis, no breaks, straight back to whatever ‘mission’ was cued up for us. If we got hurt, we walked it off and if we messed up we were made to feel like failures. Honestly, it’s a huge surprise it took five whole years for one of us to finally snap and let the gamma get to us. I don’t know how, but that shit, it sticks in your brain and … whispers to you and tells you just… fucking lose it or whatever. Makes you want to kill everyone and yourself at the same time. That _wasn’t_ Shimada acting out. That was something else, and it was your fault.”

“So, what, you want an apology?” His grandfather taunted, “You want me to call myself a villain and tell you I’m sorry?”

“I don’t want anything from you, but if you want to apologize, be my guest.”

The general scoffed. “If you want to leave, leave. I don’t need you anymore. The new Zenith team will be stronger without you around.”

“You think I’m leaving them with you so you can repeat history, this time around with a six year old? Yeah, fuck right off with that.”

“You can’t just _take_ them. As of now, they’re under the legal guardianship of the military.”

“I’m sure that the press will just _love_ that story.” Ukai said, enjoying how that stopped the other man right in his tracks. “Let’s make a deal. You leave me, Takeda, and the kids alone and I leave you alone. Shimada, too. If there’s ever a big, world-ending threat, I’ll deal with it before it becomes your problem.”

There was a moment of total silence, the two men each staring the other down, refusing to back down. It was the general who broke first. “Fine. Deal. Now get out of my face.”

“Great. See you never, Gramps.” Ukai said, before turning to Kiyoko, “Wanna come with, Shimizu?”

The woman hesitated before speaking. “I’m not done with my work here. And there needs to be one of us still around if there’s ever a third Zenith team.”

“Guess you’re right on that. Good luck, Shimizu.”

“Good luck to you too, Zoom.”

\---  
It took a lot to convince the kids to get anywhere near Shimada. ‘A lot’ being a full and very intense explanation of gamma radiation and it’s unfortunate side effects, and a long run down of the personal history of the first Zenith team and how they’d been treated. It took a lot out of Ukai, but he knew that they needed to know all of it if there was even a chance of Shimada being forgiven. Thanks to Takeda adding his own account of what he’d felt using his empathy, the kids had accepted it all in stride.   
Then, after everything had been dealt with and everyone checked out at a hospital, they had some time to cool down in the UFO before having to tackle the next issue: what to do next. Going back to the base wasn’t really an option - no one was too keen on the idea, and at worst it might be dangerous. They also couldn’t really take the UFO into town, or live in it.

It’s a hard pill to swallow, but Ukai and Takeda agreed that the smartest move would be to bring the kids back to the parents and go from there. Takeda knew where each of them lived, since he apparently had memorized their files. Not wanting to broach a potentially negative subject in the UFO, they ‘parked’ the thing out in the mountains outside a small town and went to town, with Shimada and Noya staying behind, just in case. Takeda thankfully had his wallet with him and rented a hotel room for the night, and a van to get around.

They let the kids sleep the afternoon away while they went out to buy some food and clothes. Military-issue jumpsuits turned quite a few heads, after all and they didn’t want to get arrested for looking suspicious. 

It was as they ate dinner that they decided to bring up the subject.

“So, you’ve probably been wondering about what our plans are going forward, right?” Ukai said, and the chatting that had been going on amongst the kids stopped as they all turned to stare at their mentor. “Takeda and I have been talking, trying to figure out the best course of action, and we agreed that we should bring you all back to your parents.”

Ukai had expected some sadness, some anxiety and maybe even some fear, but he hadn’t expected the broken-hearted look that crossed the faces of the majority of his team. Tsukishima was the only one who didn’t look absolutely gutted by the news and he still looked like he’d just swallowed a lemon.

“Why can’t we stay with you?” Kageyama asked, looking genuinely confused and hurt.

“Don’t you want to go see your parents again?” Takeda said, “And we’ll still come visit often. But right now, it’s for the best.”

“But I want to stay with you. I thought you said we were all family now?”

“We’re not trying to go back on that.” Ukai said, “But you have other families, who all love you just as much as we do, and will be able to care for you better. We’re just trying to give you guys the best chance possible.”

The kids didn’t protest anymore after that but were mostly quiet for the rest of dinner. Ukai knew he was making the best choice for them, so why did he feel like he was making a colossal mistake?  
\--

As they zoomed through the small urban neighbourhood in their tightly packed van towards Hinata’s family home Tadashi could only feel apprehensive of the upcoming family reunion. Hinata had been so nervous that morning that he had vomited his breakfast and then cried for a solid half an hour without calming down. Finally when he had stopped crying Tadashi was able to understand that Hinata was scared that his parents didn’t love him anymore. Tadashi, Tsukki, and Kageyama spent the remainder of the morning convincing Hinata that that wasn’t the case and that they themselves loved him very much. Thankfully Hinata seemed to be back to his usual energetic self and was animatedly chatting with Kageyama in the back of the van. 

As for Tadashi, he was exhausted as he had spent the night lying in bed silently crying as to not wake Tsukki (which spoiler alert! Did Not Work) because he couldn’t handle the thought of being away from his team, who he considered his true family by now. So here he was, falling asleep on Tsukki’s shoulder while trying not to think of the inevitable. 

“Look, Kageyama, it’s my house!” Hinata screamed, startling Tadashi from his dozing. Tsukki gave him an empathetic pat on the thigh before removing his headphones. 

“I’m guessing from the loud screeching that we’re here?” Tsukki questioned.

“Yes, everyone straighten themselves out and remember to be on your best behaviour.” Takeda said, fixing his glasses and dusting the lint off of a grouchy Ukai’s shoulders. Ukai parked the car a few houses down from Hinata’s home. Tadashi and Tsukki unbuckled their seatbelts and then turned to take Hinata out of his car seat and Kageyama out of his earbud entanglement. 

“You know, every time we do something like this I feel more and more like a soccer dad.” Tsukki mumbled to a giggling Tadashi.

“I guess I’ll just have to call you Bob from now on.” Tadashi replied, nudging the older teen with his elbow.

“Whatever you say, Karen.” Tsukki replied smirking

“I’m breaking up with you.” Tadashi deadpanned right back, not thinking of their audience.

“What?! You can’t break up, you’re like true love!” Hinata and Kageyama wailed while Tsukki looked horrified. Tadashi couldn’t stop laughing.

“Don’t worry we’re not breaking up, it was a joke, right Tsukki?” Tadashi said with a huge wink in his direction pulling a few weak giggles from the kids. 

“Right.” Tsukki said, winking back. “We really are soccer parents now.” He mumbled getting out of the car and extending his arms for Tadashi to pass Hinata off to him.

“Oh, hush. You like it.” Tadashi said, grabbing Tsukki’s hand.

“Maybe I do.” He replied, as red as a cherry. Both boys watched Hinata, Takeda, and Ukai walk up to the front door of the small home. They hung a few steps back with Kageyama so as to not overwhelm the family. The door opened revealing an exhausted looking woman with bright red hair and a baby on her hip.

“Mama!” Hinata said, jumping up to hug her.

“Shouyou! Be careful, Mommy’s holding Natsu.” She said, gently pushing the boy away. “Why don’t you all come inside for tea?” She said opening the door wider and disappearing inside. Hinata faltered before bounding his way inside. Tsukki gave his hand a squeeze and led them into the small house.

Upon entering it was clear that Hinata’s mom was overrun with chores and work seeing that there was laundry hanging from every hangable item in the small downstairs. Shoes, slippers and toys were strewn everywhere and the sink was full of reusable nappies soaking before their wash. The coffee table was covered in milk bottles and coffee cups as well. 

“Sit where you can, make room if you must.” The woman said heading to the kitchen to supposedly heat some water. Hinata was looking around the place, eyes wide as if he were rediscovering the house.

“Mama! Can I show Kageyama my room?” Hinata said, tugging on Kageyama’s hand.

“Honey I don’t-” But Hinata was already rushing up the stairs. They heard a door open and then a thud.

“Yamaguchi!” They heard Kageyama yell. Immediately Tadashi ran up the stairs not checking to see if the others were following. Finally coming to the top of the stairs, Yamaguchi could see that physically Hinata was fine, just kneeling and silently crying in front of the nursery door. He gently came up behind Hinata and scooped him up into his arms.

“What’s wrong?” He said rubbing his back.

“My room- my room.” Hinata blubbered. Looking around Tadashi noticed there was only one other room on the floor and hadn’t remembered seeing another downstairs. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. They had replaced Hinata’s room with a nursery for the new baby.

“Shouyou, my love, we thought you were going to be gone much longer and this was more convenient. We can have you and Natsu share.” His mother pleaded. 

“You replaced me!” He screamed back, face red and streaked with tears. 

“No, darling we could never replace you.” His mother replied trying to soothe him by coming closer but Hinata only kicked out.

“Where are all my things?” He said, slightly perking up at his mother’s statement. Mrs.Hinata visibly cringed.

“Well… we had to sell and give away most of it to make room for Natsu’s new things. But we can buy you new things.” She tried to soothe. Just when Hinata was going to answer, Natsu woke up and began crying. His mother’s attention immediately turned to the baby. Hinata began crying again, curling up closer into Tadashi’s hold.

“I wanna go home.” He mumbled.

“This is your home.” Tadashi tried to say, smoothing a hand through Hinata’s hair.

“No, back with you an’ Tsukki an’ Kageyama an’ Noya.” He blubbered.

“Okay, sweetie. Let’s go back to the car together.” Tadashi said, leaving the hectic house with Tsukki and Kageyama in tow.

\--  
Takeda and Ukai stood in the hall leading to the nursery, absolutely dumbfounded and way out of their depth. Takeda could feel the anger and disbelief rolling off of Ukai in waves so he decided to talk first.

“Why don’t we get baby Natsu settled and then go to the living room to talk this out?” He tried.

“Yes, um make yourselves at home. I’ll be down in a minute.” Hinata’s mother replied as if in a daze. The two men made their way back downstairs and cleared a space to sit on, on the small couch.

“Keishin, remember we have to be professional about this.”

“I know, but seeing Hinata’s worst fear come to life isn’t exactly easy to deal with.” The man grumbled out.

“How many rooms did you say your apartment had?” Takeda asked.

“Three, why? Wait are y-” The man was interrupted by Hinata’s mother coming back down the stairs. 

“I’m so sorry about that. My husband has been picking up extra shifts at work to make up for my salary.” The woman said, sitting down on a small wooden rocking chair.

“Ma’am I hate to ask, but are you in a position where you can care for Hinata?” Takeda asked, getting straight to the point. 

“I’m sure we could figure something out, maybe put Natsu back in our room.” The mother replied, wringing her hands together.

“I’m talking financially and emotionally. Hinata has special needs because of his powers and has been in a fragile mental state due to the feeling of being replaced. I need to know that this can be rectified.” Takeda said. It seemed his words had hit a sore spot because the woman began pitifully sniffling and wiping at her eyes.

“It’s just that ever since Shouyou’s powers manifested it’s been really hard. He’s accidentally blinded us several times and it gets harder to manage as he’s older. We thought that by sending him to you it would help and we could have time to get back on our feet, especially with the new baby. Heaven forbid Shouyou hurts her, ya know?” The woman said, openly crying.

“You’re scared of him.” Ukai accused.

“Wouldn’t you be? If your son was stronger than a full grown man, could blind and deafen you in an instant? We’ve tried our best!” She screamed back. Ukai looked as if he was going to argue but Takeda stopped him with a hand to his chest.

“We understand, I think that it would be best if Hinata were to remain with us indefinitely, see permanently.” Takeda said, steel in his voice. 

“Can I at least say goodbye? I do love him, ya know?” She said blubbering.

“Ukai, can you go get him.” Takeda said, turning to the man who zoomed his way out of the house. “We don’t doubt your love for him, we just think we have a better environment for him and his abilities.” Takeda finished just as Ukai, Yamaguchi, and a sniffling Hinata walked back into the house. Yamaguchi was quietly talking to the child who was still sniffling.

“Hinata, how about you say a little goodbye to your mom until we come visit again?” Takeda said gently. The six year old nodded and Yamaguchi set him down on the floor. Hinata came to his mother and took one of her hands in his.

“Bye Mama, I love you, an’ Daddy, an’ baby Natsu.” He said, before kissing the hand he held and running back to Yamaguchi’s arms.

“I love you too, pumpkin. Come visit soon, okay?” The woman said, silent tears streaming down her face. Takeda stood up.

“We’ll be in contact.” Takeda said, leaving with the others. 

\--

After an honestly depressing lunch at KFC with Hinata refusing to eat anything that wasn’t fries dipped in coleslaw, the Zenith team headed two towns over to Kageyama’s home. Tsukishima had a sleeping and drooling Tadashi leaning on his shoulder, he himself was pretending to sleep to listen in on Takeda and Ukai’s conversation. They were talking about the whole Hinata predicament.

“Of course you and Hinata can crash with me until you get a job.” Ukai said.

“Are you sure it’s not too much trouble?”

“I’ve got plenty of space in my apartment and I can take the shop over again so I’ll have a steady income.”

“You’re the best, Keishin.”

“I know, I know. There’s even a nice little elementary school close by.” The man replied. So Hinata was going to go live with Ukai and Takeda. A good alternative to whatever was going on in his old house,Tsukki thought looking out the window. They were entering a rich neighbourhood with fancy houses and well kept lawns, not that Tsukki was surprised. Kageyama had a certain ‘air’ about him that screamed spoiled kid. 

“Oh! I think that’s the address!” Takeda exclaimed, pointing to a ‘modest’ looking house at the end of an expansive cul-de-sac. Tsukki took that as his cue to groggily wake up from his ‘slumber’. He fake-yawned and stretched.

“Are we there yet?” He asked.

“Yes, that’s the house right there. Did you have a good nap?” Takeda said, turning around with a bright smile.

“Fantastic.” Tsukki deadpanned. 

“Be nice.” Tadashi said, waking up from all the noise.

“I am nice, you wouldn’t be with me if I wasn’t.” Tsukki replied.

“I have horrible taste in men.” Tadashi said, wiping the drool of his cheek. 

“Poor you.” Tsukki said, ruffling up his hair because he was that petty. Ukai pulled into the long driveway all the way to the house. There were no other cars, but there was also quite the garage. 

“Can you two wake up the kids? I’m going to go have a smoke” Ukai grouched, unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth as he stepped out of the parked car.

“Sure!” Yamaguchi said, turning around to softly wake up Hinata, whereas Tsukki flicked Kageyama’s knee.

“Wake up, punk.” Tsukki said.

“Tsukki! What did I say about you being nice?!” Yamaguchi exclaimed, elbowing him.

“You said you had bad taste in men.” Tsukki replied, jostling a still sleeping Kageyama even more. Hinata chose that moment to wake up and accidentally set off a flash bomb while yawning.

“Ah! What the fuck!” Kageyama said, nearly knocking a blinded Tsukki’s head off. 

“Jesus Christ! Will you two fuckheads calm down!” Tsukki yelled, rubbing at his eyes just as Ukai wrenched the van door open to yell at them.

“Are you fucking iditots trying to alert the whole damn country that we’re here?!” Ukai screeched. “For fuck’s sake, Takeda’s already half blind don’t make it worse.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!” Hinata wailed, beginning to cry again.

“Ah, sweetie we know you didn’t mean to.” Yamaguchi said, trying to pat in the general direction of Hinata’s head without much success. Unfortunately, from the noise Hinata made it seemed that Tadashi may have slapped the child by accident.

“Ow!”

“Oh my God, I am so sorry I was trying to pat your head.” Tadashi blabbered.

“How about we all take a minute to let our eyes adjust before we try doing anything else?” Takeda piped up from the front of the van. Tsukki thought that was a wonderful idea and promptly pulled a still panicking Yamaguchi into his lap.

“Tsukki!”

“Shut up and calm down, Hinata’s fine or we would’ve had another flash bomb.” Tsukki said, rubbing up and down the younger teens back.

“Okay…” Yamaguchi replied, finally settling down. 

“Good, now let’s pretend that didn’t happen and go back to sleep.” Tsukki said.

“Don’t you dare fall asleep you great big sack of lumpy onions!” Ukai yelled, banging on the window.

“Gah! We got it old man! Can’t we take a fucking minute?!” Tsukki yelled back, sending the finger in the general direction of Ukai’s voice. 

“Will all of you just shut up?!” Takeda exclaimed, effectively shutting everyone up for the next decade. 

\--

Once everyone had regained their sight and Ukai had smoked through half a pack of cigarettes to calm down they headed for the house. The windows had the curtains drawn and there were no lights coming from the inside which Tsukki found strange considering it was pretty late into the evening by then.

“Um, not to burst any bubbles here, but are your parents even home?” Tsukki asked.

“Probably not, they go on business trips a lot.” Kageyama replied, reaching for a key hidden in a flower pot. He opened the door and punched in the security code before ushering everyone inside. From the amount of dust on the various surfaces of the entryway the parents had been gone for a while.

“Um, how often is a lot?” Hinata asked, dust on his glowing fingers.

“Most weeks.” Kageyama blandly replied.

“Who takes care of you?” Takeda asked.  
“I have since I turned ten but before that I had a nanny, she passed away last year.” The boy said. “Can I go get some things in my room?” He asked.

“Uh, sure. You clearly can’t stay here alone?” Takeda said, turning to an already sighing and nodding Ukai. 

“C’mon Hinata! You can pick out one of my volleyballs!” Kageyama exclaimed, tugging Hinata by the hand. ‘It looks like Ukai’s getting another guest’ Tsukki mused. Tadashi seemed to be fidgeting a lot beside him for some reason.

“Hey, you good?” He whispered, turning to the brunet. His eyes widened and he slowly shook his head mumbling a soft no.

“C’mere.” Tsukki said, pulling Tadashi to his chest.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Tsukki asked, over the sound of a loud crash followed by a shout of indignation coming from upstairs. Looking down he saw Tadashi shake his head no, not looking up from his snuggling. Tsukki had a feeling that he was upset because he was worried over Hinata and Kageyama’s home situations.

“I’m worried about them too, but I promise they’ll be okay.” Tsukki said sincerely, rubbing his boyfriend’s back. Tadashi looked up at him confused but seemed to find what he was looking for in Tsukki’s facial expressions but ultimately chose to go back to hiding his face on Tsukki’s chest. Somewhere in the not-so-far away distance they could hear the two kids rushing down the stairs.

“Mr. Ukai! Mr. Ukai! Kageyama has like a million volleyballs! Look he gave me this pretty orange one because it matches my hair!” Hinata said, jumping around before leaping at a ready to receive Ukai.

“Wow! That’s a really nice present, did you say thank you?” Ukai asked, observing the ball.

“Of course I did!” Hinata yelled going back to a timid looking Kageyama. “Is he going to stay with me at the base?” He asked.

“About that, the both of you are going to come live with me and Takeda for a little while until we can figure something out for the both of you.” Ukai said, bending down to Hinata’s height.

“See? They’ll be fine, better even with Ukai and Takeda.” Tsukki whispered to Tadashi.

“WE GET TO BE A FAMILY?” Hinata exclaimed, jumping around the house with Kageyama. 

“I guess, we do? Yes, yes we do!” Takeda said, unsure.

“Can we go back to the hotel?” Kageyama asked. “I’m tired.”

“Weren’t you sleeping the whole way here?” Tsukki teased.

“Takeda said I was a growing boy, asshole!” Kageyama shot back. 

“Tsukki, be nice.” Tadashi mumbled from where he was still hiding.

“I already told you that I am nice.” Tsukki responded, poking Tadashi in the side.

“If you’re as nice as you say you are you’d carry me back to the car?” Tadashi asked in a hopeful voice.

“Well, since I am that nice, I will carry my prince to his awaiting carriage.” Tsukki replied in an overtly posh accent as he gently picked up his ‘prince’. He walked away to the car leaving the others to settle things in the house. ‘Tonight’s sleep will be well-deserved’ he thought.

\--

Something was incessantly poking his cheek in an attempt to rouse him from his very nice slumber and Tadashi was just not having it. He was so warm and comfy and outside was so not warm and comfy. Someone that sounded strangely like Tsukki was now trying to gently pull the covers off of Tadashi’s vulnerable body.

“C’mon I know you’re awake, we’re getting breakfast in fifteen minutes.” The voice said, lifting him out of the bed and bringing him to a very bright (ew) and cold place (ew, again). 

“Nooooooo.”

“Tadashi please, Ukai’s already on my case because I let you sleep in.” Tsukki said, which finally prompted Tadashi to open his eyes with a glare.

“Meanie.”

“I literally carried you out of your bed to the bathroom.” Tsukki deadpanned.

“Big meanie.”

“I can and will drop you.”

“Even bigger meanie, I thought my boyfriend was a prince charming.”

“No, you have a soccer dad named Bob as your boyfriend and we’re going to be late for little league again.”

“Fuck, guess I can’t let the other Karens win.”

“No, you cannot.”

“Alright, put me down. I’ll be ready in 8.” Tadashi said, stretching and yawning.

“I’ll wait for you even if you’re still sleepy and grumpy.” Tsukki said, booping Tadashi’s nose on his way out. Tadashi looked at himself in the mirror and let out a sigh; today was going to be a mess.

\--

Breakfast was as quiet of an affair as it could be with the presence of the Hinata/Kageyama combo. That is to say that Hinata got carried away in his storytelling and ended up spitting some cereal in Kageyama’s face. By the end of the ‘meal’ everyone had to take a shower to remove either yogurt or juice from their hair, not to mention that Hinata had to be stopped from setting off a flash bomb twice in the span of thirty minutes. That and the fact that Tadashi was growing more nervous as the minutes passed by and ended up clinging to a confused Tsukki’s hand as they made their way to the car. 

“Are you alright?” Tsukki asked.

“I think I’m nervous because today isn’t exactly going to go how everyone seems to think it will.” Tadashi admitted.

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Neither do I.”

“Well, if things go the way you think they will, I'm there for you okay?”

“Thank you.”

“Of course, we’re a team after all.” Tsukki said with his signature smirk. 

\--

Tadashi only felt what could be described as absolute terror as he climbed the rickety stairs to his parent’s apartment in his old neighbourhood. He was honestly probably crushing Tsukki’s hand with how tight his grip was but he was too far down the anxiety rabbit hole to do anything about it. He wasn’t sure but he swore he had seen his old childhood bullies lurking behind a dumpster when they had gotten out of the van. Hopefully they will be able to leave this whole inevitable fiasco without running into them. He could already hear them yelling as they approached the door, he prayed with every fiber of his being that they weren’t drunk for once. 

Takeda and Tsukki kept giving him worried side glances as he stepped up to knock on the door to what used to be his home. Sluggish steps made their way to the door (so at least one of them was drunk) before it swung open to reveal his father in his boxers and an old undershirt from when he had a decent job.

“What the fuck you doin’ here, small fry?!” His father exclaimed, way too loud for a Tuesday morning. 

“What are you yelling about Hiro?” His mother asked, thankfully sober, much calmer and sleepy until she saw him. “Tadashi!?”

“Hi.” He replied shyly. “Can we come in?” He asked, gesturing to his team. His parents gave them a rough onceover before beckoning them into a tiny dirty apartment. It seemed that they hadn’t bothered cleaning after Tadashi had left and stopped doing it for them, not that he was surprised. The living room/dining room was the only place that could fit them all but there were only three chairs and the ratty old couch that stank of cheap beer.

“Sit where ya fit.” His dad announced to the team, much to Tadashi’s horror.

“I think we’re good dad, they’re going to leave soon anyways.” He said.

“What the fuck are you going on about?” His mother asked not too kindly. Takeda and Ukai visibly bristled.

“I’m sorry, we forgot to introduce ourselves earlier. I’m Dr. Takeda and this here is Mr. Ukai, we were Tadashi’s caretakers at the Zenith base.” Takeda diplomatically said.

“So what? You guys finally figure out a way to fix this freak?” His dad laughed while Tadashi flinched. 

“Um, what are you referring to?” Takeda asked, not sounding pleased in the slightest while Tadashi was trying to make abortive movements.

“Your coworkers promised they could fix our freaky excuse for a child with some kind of revolutionary treatment. It’s the only reason we let him go, he’s a good little maid; aren’t you, Tadashi?” His mother sneered. His only reply was a small yes before he noticed that Tsukki had disappeared from behind him. 

“But, his powers are a gift!” Takeda tried to argue.

“They’re a damn curse and cost us our reputation and livelihood! Now unless he’s fixed you can get the fuck out of my home!” His father yelled, swinging his arms around. It was much too late when he realized that his powers were acting out again because of stress.

“Quit the freaky shit, small fry!” His father yelled, throwing the closest thing to him, which was a cement ashtray, towards Tadashi’s head. It was stopped by an invisible force and thrown back in his father's face. Tsukki appeared right in front of his bleeding father before bending down to whisper in his ear as everyone stood in silent shock. He stepped back, turned around, took Tadashi’s hand in a warm grip and spoke.  
“We’re leaving.” He said walking out, dragging a dazed Tadashi behind him. 

\--

Tsukki was just beginning to calm down when a group of dimwits intercepted them on their way back to the van. Tadashi visibly shrank at the sight of the dimwits so Tsukki could only guess the relationship wasn’t cordial.

“Hey look! The small fry’s finally got someone to pity him enough to shag him!” One of the fuckfaces cackled. And that marked Tsukki’s official bullshit limit.

“You fuckers have ten seconds to apologize and disappear from my sight before I beat the shit out of you.” He warned feeling the need to blow off some steam again.

“Tsukki…” Tadashi tried to reason as the idiots in front of them tried to form sentences.

“Time’s up fuckers.” Tsukki said, going invisible.

\--

Tadashi was gently wiping up his busted knuckles in the van while chastising his ‘rogue’ behaviour. 

“You didn’t have to do that, they could’ve hurt you.” He said.

“Yeah, but then that means that I wouldn’t be embracing the role of prince charming.”

“Tsukki…”

“Okay fine, I just had a lot of built up tension because our kids’ team hasn’t been doing good this season.” He replied by booping Tadashi’s nose just because he could. 

“God I can’t believe I’m in love with a soccer dad.” Tadashi said before going red at the realization of what he had admitted. Honestly, in Tsukki’s superior opinion, it was the most adorable thing in the world.

“Good thing this soccer dad’s just as in love with his soccer wife.” He replied.

\--

After everyone else had had their fiascos at their homes, Tsukishima was a bit apprehensive about going to his own home. Unlike the others, it wasn’t because he was scared of what might be waiting for him, but rather because he knew exactly what was waiting. His parents would be overjoyed to see him and his brother too. They’d have a million questions and insist everyone stay over for supper. They’d want him to stay, without a doubt.

It seemed everyone was apprehensive as they got out of the van in front of the simple suburban house Tsukishima used to call home. Ukai, Takeda and Yamaguchi all share worried looks while Hinata and Kageyama both look vaguely nauseous. 

They had knocked at all the houses before, but Tsukishima decided not to. He had been away from a while, but it was still HIS house.

“I’m home!” He called out, like he had done his whole life, slipping off his shoes. His house slippers were still there, just a bit shoved to the side.

“Kei?!” A voice shouted from inside. His mother.

“What? Kei’s here?!” Another voice shouted. Akiteru. He must have been visiting from college.

“Kei!” His father was the first to arrive, a big grin on his face, pulling Tsukishima into a bone crushing hug immediately, “You didn’t tell us you were coming home!”

Pulling away from his father’s grasp, Tsukishima spoke, “Yeah, this is kinda last minute. Can my team come in?”

“Your team?” His father asked quizzically, looking over his shoulder at where everyone else had gathered just outside the door. “Of course, but you’re going to have to introduce us!”

His mother and Akiteru reached the entryway then and Tsukishima put up with another round of hugs as the rest of the team entered the house. 

“Right. Uh, this is my team.” Tsukishima said, not sure how to introduce everyone. “Ukai and Takeda, our teachers. Then this is Yamaguchi, my boyfriend, and Kageyama and Hinata. Hinata is the tiny one, Kageyama is the gloomy one.”

“Boyfriend?” Akiteru said, a bright look on his face, “I can’t believe Kei managed to get someone to date him!”

“They can tell us all about it over dinner!” His mother declared, “It’s almost ready! Come, everyone, make yourselves at home!”

Tsukishima led everyone to the dining room and helped Akitera set out more plates at the table, feeling his team watching him the whole way through. His father was making friendly conversation with Ukai and Takeda, while his mother cooed over Hinata and Kageyama. Soon they were all sitting at the table, but Tsukishima felt far from hungry.

“So, is it common to have such young members on the teams, or is Hinata-kun truly exceptional?” His mother asked.

“Hinata is the youngest ever, yes!” Takeda said, “Every other Zenith team member has been at least twelve before.”

“Your power must be very impressive!” His father said to Hinata, who was glowing brightly under all the attention and praise. 

“Yeah!” Hinata agreed with no hesitation. “I’m super strong, but I can also do this thing called a ‘flash bomb?’ which just means I make it REALLY light really quickly and no one can see!”

“No demonstrations!” Ukai said sternly as Hinata’s glow started getting more intense. Hinata pouted a bit but dimmed down regardless. 

“Yeah, don’t blind my family, Hinata.” Tsukishima said. “Don’t be fooled by his cute appearance. He’s a public menace.”

His whole family laughed at his joke, bright and happy despite Hinata looking a bit peeved at being called a public menace. Though Tsukishima wasn’t sure Hinata actually knew what that meant. Everyone at the table continued chatting and exchanging anecdotes but Tsukishima tuned them all out. He could see how his team was clearly enjoying dinner, but the tinge of jealousy on his teammates’ faces was hard to miss, as was the slight discomfort and fear of his parents and brother as Ukai explained their training regiment and Hinata and Kageyama regaled them with stories he’s pretty sure they’d signed NDAs about.

“So, we were hoping you guys would welcome Tsukishima back…” Takeda said, just Tsukishima mentally tuned back into the conversation, “We know it’s quite last minute…”

“Of course! We’ve missed him so much!” His mother said with no hesitation, “Your room might be a bit dusty though, if you don’t mind sleeping on the couch tonight, haha!”

“I would rather stay with my team.” Tsukishima said. Holy shit, what had just possessed him to say that? He hadn’t even been thinking before speaking, the words had just come out on their own.

“What?”

“Tsukki, what are you saying?” Tadashi asked, looking super concerned and confused. “Don’t you wanna stay with your family..?”

“Is something wrong, Kei?” Akiteru asked, looking concerned. “I promise I didn’t steal any of your books or anything.”

“It’s nothing against you guys.” Tsukishima said, to his mother, father and brother, “Really. It’s really nice seeing you all again. I would probably stay too, if I hadn't somehow gotten attached to this band of idiots.”

“Hey!” Hinata and Kageyama shouted, while Tadashi and their mentors laughed a bit.

“But… I think it’s time for me to move out, permanently. I want to stick with my team to keep them safe and to be close to them. Everyone’s already moving in together, apparently, and I wouldn’t want to be the odd man out, you know. And anyways, I’m almost eighteen. I’d just move out soon in any case.”

“Wow, Kei! You’re way more cool about moving out than I am!” Akiteru said after a minute of silence. “You’re gonna make me look uncool.”

“Well, if you want to move out, I’m in no position to refuse you!” His father said jovially, “So long as Mr. Ukai and Mr. Takeda are also okay with this!”

“Of course!” Takeda said with a smile.

“Well, I’m already letting three kids move in, what’s one more?” Ukai said, failing to look annoyed. He seemed quite pleased that Tsukishima wanted to move in with him.

With that, everyone began chatting happily again, moving on. Tsukishima still had a few hangups about everything but he knew that ultimately… everything would be alright.

\--

Ukai’s apartment was a bit cramped with six people living in it, but he knew he had to count his blessings. It could be seven people and a robot, after all, but Shimada and Noya lived in the UFO like hermits most of the time.

Due to having left in the middle of a school year and subsequently missing a little bit over a month, missing all of their midterm exams, meant that they couldn’t go back to school right away. Plus, they had all moved decently far away from when they were originally, so Ukai and Takeda had to actually find schools for them in the area.

There was a high school a short walking distance away from Ukai’s apartment that Tsukishima and Yamaguchi could easily get into, since neither were particular about where they finished their studies. Kageyama was significantly pickier, insisting on finding a middle school with a good volleyball team that wasn’t too far away so his commute was short so he could hang out with Hinata. Hinata himself didn’t have a lot of opinions about where he was going to school - he was only six, after all - but Takeda was pretty intent on finding the best possible elementary school within their range.

Thankfully, everything was sorted out by the start of the school year. Having the apartment completely empty all the time after having it being pure chaos for nearly half a year was pretty jarring for Ukai, and he wondered how exactly he had managed to live there alone before the whole Zenith 2.0 fiasco.

He had thought that dealing with the kids outside of the base would be similar enough to dealing with the kids inside the base, but in the year since they had all left, Ukai had faced the horrible truth that it was quite different. At least in the base, he knew that when Tsukishima disappeared, there was a limit to where the teen had gone, but now it was anyone’s guess on if Tsukishima was simply taking the long way home or had decided to board a train to the next town over to buy treats from his favourite cafe. In the real world, Hinata randomly flash bombing during the day was not just an annoyance, but a fairly big issue that attracted the attention of the police.

To put it simply, it was a year and a half of near-catastrophes, all culminating in Tsukishima’s graduation. Ukai found himself sitting with Takeda on one side and some frazzled looking lady on the other. Tsukishima’s family hadn’t been able to make it to the ceremony itself but were going to be there that evening to take all of them out for dinner at some fancy restaurant.

“Which one is yours?” The frazzled woman asked, “ _My_ daughter is valedictorian this year! I mean, it was the obvious choice, since she was the Student Council president.”

Ukai was briefly stunned and unsure of what to say. The woman was staring at him with huge eyes, her husband leaning over to look as well. 

“Ours is Tsukishima Kei!” Takeda piped up, “The really tall blond one!”

The woman and her husband both looked stunned, badly hiding the immediately souring of their smiling faces.

“And they… allow that?” The woman asked, not subtle in the slightest.

“Allow what?” Ukai said dumbly, wondering how long the woman would flounder exactly before slipping up and saying something she shouldn’t.

Suddenly, Hinata piped up from his seat, “I know it may seem way too unfair how tall Tsukki is, but it’s actually not illegal!”

“Oh! You have another one!” The woman exclaimed.

“Another what?” Kageyama asked, looking up from his handheld console.

“I think they’re talking about kids.” Yamaguchi said casually, though there was no way he hadn’t caught on to what the woman was implying.

“Big family, right?” Takeda said with a smile and a chuckle. “They’re a handful, but we love them anyway!”

“I’m sorry, but,” The woman seemed to hesitate, still focused on Ukai and Takeda before her eyes fell on Hinata. The kid was starting to glow again, despite having used up all of his energy before coming to the ceremony. “Is he glowing? What the heck?!”

“It’s my power!” Hinata said, “Isn’t it the coolest? Tadashi, you should show her yours!”

“Hinata, you know the rules about using your powers in public!” Takeda chastised.

“I know our family is pretty strange,” Ukai told the woman with a smile, “But please don’t treat us any differently. We are all human, after all!”

Both the woman and her husband were spluttering, clearly trying to come up with some way to respond, but Ukai’s attention was brought away from them by his phone buzzing.

It was a text from Shimada, a screencap of a news reporting reading ‘Breaking News! Kaiju spotted off of the coast of Hokkaido for the first time in decades!’

“Fuck.” Ukai swore. Of course a catastrophe just had to happen right when Tsukishima was graduating. He stood, and the rest of his family followed suit quickly. Their movement clearly caught the eye of Tsukishima, and Ukai waved him over, holding up his phone to signify something was going on. “Right. So sorry to leave so abruptly, but duty calls, you know. Maybe your daughter can pick up Tsukishima’s diploma for him? We’ll be seeing you!”

They rushed out of the auditorium, causing a bit of a stir as Tsukishima left the stage as well with no warning. There would no doubt be a lot of explaining to do in the near future, but it would probably not be the worst thing Ukai had had to explain away recently.

It was hard to believe that his life had somehow turned out this way - in a new Zenith team, in a steady relationship and having four kids living with him - but sometimes life kinda slapped you in the face with stuff like that.

Still, he wouldn’t change it for the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END THE REAL END!!!
> 
> we've been working on some other things, so keep a look out for those please!! :D


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